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ECHOES 


OF 


HARPER'S  FERRY. 


By  the  rude  Bridge  that  arched  the  flood. 

Their  flag  to  April's  breeze  unfurled ; 
Here  once  the  embattled  farmers  flood. 

And  fired  the  fliot  heard  round  the  World." 

R.  W.  Emerson. 


JAMES  REDPATH. 


BOSTON: 
THAYER    AND  ELDRIDGE, 


fntcrcil,  accordlDg  to  Act  of  CongrcM,  In  the  yeor  ISCO, 
Br  JAMES  BEDPATH, 
In  the  Cleric's  Offlcc  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Maiaachtuetls. 


3  ?  6.  q  1  3 


Dedication. 


■»9 

<     To  General  Fabee  Gefpeaed, 

President  of  the  Republic  of  Hayti :  . 

May  it  Please  your  Mccdlency:  I  dedicate  this  col? 
fvi     lection  of  ethical  and  political  papers  to  you,  as  my  first 
demurrer  to  the  Haytien  indictment  against  American 
'      character.   You  have  done  justly,  I  think,  in  refusing,  in 
J     your  speeches,  to  recognize  our  Union  as  a  free  Republic. 
For,  in  fifteen  of  our  Southern  States,  men  and  women  of 
your  race,  many  of  them  with  the  blood  of  their  tyrants 
Q    in  their  veins,  are  held  and  reputed,  by  law  and  custom, 
and  universal  practice,  as  chattels  personal  or  real  estate ; 
and,  as  such,  are  sold  and  exchanged,  mortgaged  and  be- 
queathed!  Professing  to  be  Christian  Commonwealths, 
these  States  unblushingly  traffic  in  humanity!  Professing 
\    to  be  Republican  Communities,  they  deprive  an  entire  race 
^    of  every  social,  personal,  and  political  right!  Professing 
^    to  be  civilized  Societies,  they  hav:^  inhumanly  forced  free 
citizens  of  color  to  leave  their  States,  or  be  sold  into  eter- 
nal and  irremediable  Slavery ! 

And,  in  the  Northern  States,  where  Slavery  has  ceased 
to  exist,  a  spirit  of  intolerance,  alike  unchristian  and  un- 
I  republican,  politically  disfranchises  and  socially  excommu- 
^  nicates  your  race. 

(3) 


4 


Dedication. 


I  admit  these  facts.  But  there  are  thousands  in  my 
country  who  have  not  yet  bowed  the  knee  to  the  Southern 
Baal.  Preeminent  among  them  was  an  heroic  old  man, 
who  dared  to  defy  the  Slave  Power  in  its  oldest  strong- 
hold. He  died  for  your  race ;  he  died  for  his  country. 
He  laid  down  his  life  to  cover  the  foul  stain  on  our  national 
escutcheon,  by  endeavoring  to  liberate  the  bondmen  of 
the  Southern  States. 

This  event  —  the  most  glorious  in  the  annals  of  the 
United  States  —  has  elicited  from  every  free  man  an  ex- 
pression of  his  opinion  on  American  Slavery. 

Here,  in  this  volume,  are  some  of  these  utterances. 
Read  them.  President ;  they  are  worthy  of  your  perusal. 
They  mark  the  commencement  of  a  new  and  more  radi- 
cally earnest  crusade  against  the  crime  of  the  South,  and 
the  curse  and  disgrace  of  the  Union.  I  think  you  will 
say,  after  reading  them,  in  the  words  of  a  worthy  Judge 
of  Gonaives,  to  a  native  who  denounced  a  foreign  resident : 
"  Stop !  stop !  my  friend ;  although  one  may  be  a  white, 
it  does  not  neca^sarily  follow, that  he  is  a  dog." 

"With  the  sincerest  wishes  for  the  prosperity  of  your 
Government,  and  the  advancement  of  your  nation,  mate™ 
riaJ'y,  morally,  and  in  political  power,  I  have  the  honor 
to  remain,  your  fiiend  and  fellow-laborer  in  the  cause  of 
Freedonfi, 


Malden,  Massachusetts, 
April,  U,  1860. 


Preface. 


I  HAD  two  objects  in  view  in  editing  this  volume  —  first, 
to  preserve,  in  a  permanent  form,  the  memorable  words 
that  have  been  spoken  of  Captain  John  Brown ;  and,  sec- 
ond, to  aid  the  families  of  the  blacks  and  the  men  of  color, 
who  recently  went  to  Heaven  via  Harper's  Ferry,  or  who 
were  murdered,  with  legal  forms,  at  Charlestown,  Virginia. 
The  papers  of  which  it  consists  have  been  revised  by  their 
authors,  at  my  request ;  or  they  are  printed,  with  their  con- 
sent, from  properly  corrected  editions. 

My  desire  to  preserve  these  papers,  arises  not  so  much 
from  friendship  for  the  memoiy  of  the  Captain,  or  a  per- 
sonal sympathy  for  the  surviving  relatives  of  his  brave 
colored  followers,  as  from  the  hope  that  I  may  thereby 
fan  the  holy  flame  that  their  action  kindled,  until,  becom- 
ing a  consuming  fire,  it  shall  bum  lip,  with  thoroughness 
and  speed,  every  vestige  of  the  crime  of  American  Slavery. 
For  I  do  most  sincerely  believe,  notwithstanding  the 
craven  speeches  of  timeserving  politicians,  and  the  good- 
God-good-devil  exhortations  of  pusillanimous  preachers, 
that  the  quickest  way,  and  the  most  American  way,  and 
the  only  efficient  way,  in  which  to  hasten  on  the  Impend- 
ing Crisis,  —  to  bring  to  a  speedy  issue  the  approaching 
and  Irresistible  Conflict  between  Slavery  and  Freedom,  — 
1*  (5) 


6 


Preface. 


is  for  the  North  to  act  on  the  aggressive,  "  remembering 
those  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,"  —  as  Lafayette  re- 
men.bered  America  in  her  hour  of  trial,  and  America 
remembered  Greece  when  she  struggled  for  indepen- 
dence; or,  to  bring  the  illustration  nearer  home,  and  to 
make  it  more  practical,  as  Henry  Ward  Beecher  remem- 
bered Kansas,  when  the  Southern  barbarians  were  pollut- 
ing her  prairies,  and  filling  her  ravines  with  the  corpses  of 
Northern  men.  Agitation  is  good  when  it  ultimates  in  ac- 
tion :  but  not  otherwise.  Sarcasm,  wit,  denunciation,  and 
eloquence,  are  excellent  preparatives  for  pikes,  swords,  rifles, 
and  revolvers ;  but,  of  themselves,  they  yet  never  liberated 
a  Slave  Nation  in  this  world,  and  they  never  will.  Pharaoh 
can  afford  to  be  laughed  at,  and  cursed,  and  denounced, 
with  Israelites  selling  at  two  thousand  dollars  a  head.  It 
requires  Moses,  with  the  plagues  at  his  command,  to  let 
the  oppressed  go  free.  The  Beechers  of  our  age  are 
only  useful  in  proportion  as  they  prepare  the  way  for  the 
John  Browns.  When  they  try  to  oppose  the  progress  of 
the  actors,  the  preachers  are  to  be  summarily  kicked  out 
of  the  way.  That  is  why  I  put  Mr.  Beecher's  sermon  on 
John  Brown  in  the  same  class  of  productions  as  the 
speeches^of  Edward  Everett  and  Charles  O'Conor. 

When  the  Freedom  of  Kansas  was  in  danger,  Mr. 
Beecher  spoke  bullets,  —  sixteen  a  minute,  and  half-ounce 
bails  at  that ;  he  truly  said  that  rifles  were  a  moral  agency, 
and  that  one  might  as  well  preach  to  buffaloes  as  to  Bor- 
der Kuffians;  but  noAV,  when  Slavery  is  in  danger,  ho 
deprecates  the  assault  on  it,  discovers  "a  right  way"  and 
"a  wrong  way;"  and  draws  distinctions  so  critical  and 
nice  that  he  who  runs  may  read  that  this  champion  of 
Liberty  in  Kansas  is  only  a  white  man  after  all.  He  has 


Preface. 


7 


not  yet  come  out  to  be  a  universal  man,  and  to  sympa- 
thize equally  with  all  men,  irrespective  of  races  or  con- 
ditions of  life. 

I  thus  introduce  the  name  of  Mr.  Beecher,  because,  more 
than  any  other  man  I  know,  he  embodies  the  average 
prejudice  of  the  Northern  States ;  and  is  the  ablest  and 
most  eloquent  exponent  of  that  hypocritical  cant,  which 
talks  of  sympathy  for  the  Slave,  and,  at  the  samo  time, 
extinguishes  all  effective  attempts  to  help  him.  He  will 
bless  Moses,  and  Washington,  and  Lafayette,  and  Joshua, 
and  then  damn  John  Brown  with  the  faintest  praise — if 
calling  a  hero  a  crazy  man,  and  representing  him  as  actu- 
ated by  the  base  passion  of  revenge,  can,  indeed,  under 
any  circumstances,  be  designated  praise.  He  will  crow  the 
loudest  on  the  next  "glorious  Fourth," — yet  Washington 
fought  with  carnal  weapons,  and  killed  men  by  the  cart- 
load, too.  And  the  same  argument  which  talks  of  John 
Brown's  inexpedient  and  bloody  attempt  applies  equally 
to  George  Washington's  career.  For,  had  the  Revolu- 
tionary Fathers  waited  seventy  years,  a  separation  from 
the  Mother  Country  could  have  been  accomplished  with- 
out bloodshed.  The  strength  of  the  colonies  would  have 
made  a  war  impossible.  Yet  they  would  not  wait  one 
year — far  less  seventy;  and  Mr.  Beecher  justly  thinks 
that  they  acted  rightly.  But,  for  the  Slaves,  how  very 
different  a  policy  he  suggests!  They  must  wait  —  onb- 
Heaven  knows  how  long.  Until  "the  influence  of  Na- 
tional Freedom  will  gradually/  reach  "  them  !  Until  they 
feel  the  universal  summer  of  civilization!  Until  the 
Southern  Christians  shall  feel  a  new  inspiration !  Until 
"the  Pentecost  comes,"  and— "<Ae  Slaves  wiU  be  stirred 
tip  hf  their  own  masters  I''''   No  wonder,  then,  that,  such 


8 


Preface. 


being  his  policy,  —  no  wonder,  that,  avowing  himself  a 
Waiter  on  Providence — he  should  say  that  Slavery  must 
last  for  ages."  But  John  Brown  was  not  of  such  a  self- 
ish spirit,  as  —  himself  and  his  family  being  free  —  to 
preach  non-intervention  for  God's  sorely  persecuted  people. 
His  was  that  heroic  Christianity  which  believed  in  help- 
ing God  to  help  God's  cause.  He  would  not  have  been 
guilty  of  the  inconsistency  of  teaching  equal  rights  to  the 
negro  race,  as  Mr.  Beecher  does,  and  then,  in  describing 
an  invasion,  "  snuffing  out"  of  his  account  the  five  colored 
men  who  heroically  shared  in  it.  He  would  not  have 
mentioned  the  white  men  only.  He  would  have  regarded 
such  an  omission  as  quite  equal  to  our  church  and  our 
omnibus  heathenisms.  But  I  leave  Mr.  Beecher  and  Cap- 
tain Brown  to  the  verdict  of  impartial  history,  which  will 
discriminate,  justly,  the  respective  merits  of  compromising 
words  and  uncompromising  actions. 

This  volume  has  cost  me  no  little  labor.  Apart  from 
the  correspondence  which  it  has  required,  the  immense 
number  of  journals  that  I  have  read  in  order  to  compile  it, 
would  hardly  be  credited.  To  read  so  much,  and  to  find 
so  little,  is  rather  discouraging.  But  the  signs  of  a  grand 
progress,  that  one  sees  in  the  American  press,  amply  repay 
the  labor  of  reviewing  it. 

I  have  greatly  altered  my  original  plan  in  prepating  this 
volume.  I  had  intended  to  write  a  history  of  the  effect  of 
the  Touchstone  of  Haqier's  Feiry,  on  the  men  and  parties, 
and  Institutions  of  the  Free  States;  but  find,  on  reviewing 
my  voluminous  materials,  that  the  time  for  it  has  not  yet 
fully  come. 

I  intended,  also,  to  quote  from  the  Bible  those  texts 
and  passages  in  which  oppression  is  denounced,  and  war 


Prefece.  9 


approved;  and,  in  the  second  chapter,  to  republish  the 
American  Declaration  of  Independence  —  and  to  rest 
John  Brown's  defence  on  them  alone.  For,  John  BroAvn 
most  earnestly  believed  the  Bible»to  be  the  Word  of 
Almighty  God — as  infallible  as  it  is  sacred.  Now,  in  no 
book,  not  professedly  military,  are  there  more  clear  and 
unequivocal  approvals  of  war,  "  as  a  moral  agency,"  than 
in  the  Sacred  Volume  of  Christendom.  Clergymen,  who 
professedly  believe  the  Bible,  but  take  the  liberty  of  seek- 
ing out  a  "better  way"  of  serving  God's  poor  than  it 
recommends,  will  denounce,  as  it  is  natural  to  expect,  John 
Brown's  brave  fulfilment  of  the  Scripture;  but,  as  they 
worship  a  different  God  from  John  Brown,  he  should  not 
be  held  responsible  to  their  tribunal,  or  accountable  to 
their  procrastinating  Deity.  The  Bible  tells  us  that  "  the 
Lord  is  a  Man  of  War,"  not  a  rose-water  God;  not  a 
Being  less  attentive  to  the  poor  that  cry,  than  solicitous 
for  the  safety  of  a  Union  of  States  or  an  American  Board 
of  Missions ! 

I  do  not  quote  these  passages,  because  they  would  un- 
duly enlarge  my  volume ;  and  they  can  easily  be  found  in 
every  library  and  every  home.  For  the  same  reason  I 
refer  only  to  the  American  Declaration  of  Independence. 

Read  them — the  Bible  and  the  Declaration — atten- 
tively, and  earnestly;  and  then,  thus  guarded  against 
sophistry,  I  do  not  fear  that  the  proslavery  papers  in  this 
Book  will  implant  a  single  falsehood  in  any  mind. 

And  now,  sincerely  repeating  the  toast  of  sturdy  Sam. 
Johnson,  Success  to  the  next  Negro  Insurrection!^^  I 
commit  my  collection  to  the  careful  study  of  the  young 
men  with  hearts  and  heads  in  the  Northern  United 
States. 


The  Touchstone. 


A  MAS  there  came,  whence  aone  could  tell. 
Bearing  a  Touchstone  in  his  hand. 
And  tested  all  things  in  the  land 

By  its  nnerring  spell. 

A  thousand  transformations  rose, 
From  fair  to  foul,  from  foul  to  fair ; 
The  golden  crown  he  did  not  sharo, 

Nor  acorn  the  beggar's  clothes. 

Of  heirloom  jewels,  prized  so  much, 
Were  many  changed  to  chips  and  clods, 
And  even  statues  of  the  g^ds 

Crumbled  beneath  its  touch. 

Then  angrily  the  people  cried, 
"The  loss  outweighs  the  profit  fiu-, 
Our  goods  suffice  us  as  they  are, 

We  will  not  have  them  tried." 

But  since  they  could  not  so  avail 
To  check  his  unrelenting  quest, 
They  seized  bim,  saying,  "  Let  him  test 

How  real  is  our  JaiL" 

But  though  they  slew  him  with  their  swords. 
And  in  the  fire  the  Touchstone  burned, -~ 
Its  doings  could  not  be  o'ertnmed. 

Its  undoings  restored. 

And  when,  to  stop  all  future  harm. 
They  strewed  his  ashes  to  the  breeze. 
They  little  guessed  each  grain  of  these, 

Conveyed  the  perfect  charm. 


Contents. 


TAOS 

Tm.E,   1-2 

Dbdicatjon,  ^  .  3-4 

Ppttace,   5-9 

Table  op  Contents,   11-14 

Book  Fikst  —  Bunker  Hill,   15-122  , 

Book  Second  —  Mount  Sinai,   123-236 

Book  Third  —  Non-Inteeventionists,   ....  237-3,00 

Book  Four  —  Non-B,esistants,   301-357 

Book  Five — Voice  of  Kansas   359-383 

Book  Six  —  John  Brown's  Prison  Letters,       .      .  385-433 

Book  Seven  —  Death  op  Sauson,   435-454 

Appendix,   455-514 

^ook  #rst  — Hanher  fill. 

A  Plea  for  Capt.  John  Brown,  hj  Henry  D.  Thoreau,      .  17-42 

The  Lesson  of  the  Hour,  by  Wendell  Phillips,  .       .      .  4»-66 

Speech  delivered  at  Tremont  Temple,  by  il.  W.  Emerson, .  67-71 

Two  Letters  by  Theodore  Parker,   73-92 

Speech  by  Theodore  Tilton   93-97 

Two  Letters  by  Victor  Hugo,    ......  99-104 

The  Puritan  Principle,  by  Wendell  Phillips,      .      .      .  105-118 

Speech  delivered  at  Salem,  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,      .  119-122 

^ook  §^tcan)3  —  Pomtt  Sinai. 

The  Beginning  of  the  End  of  American  Slavery,  by  Rev. 

Gilbert  Haven   125-140 


12 


Contents. 


The  Example  and  the  Method  of  Emancipation  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  Coimtry  and  the  Word  of  God,  by 


Eev.  Dr.  Gheever,   141-175 

Sermon  by  Bev.  Edwin  M.  Wheelock,      ....  177-194 

The  Conflict  in  America,  by  Rev.  Fales  Henry  Newhall,  .  195-211 
The  Martyr's  Death  and  the  Martyr's  Triumph,  by  Rev. 

Dr.  Cheever                                        .      .       .  213-235 

Speech  by  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  with  Notes,    .       .      .  239-256 

Sermon  by  Rev.  Henry  Ward  iJeecher,      ....  257-279 

A  Daniel  come  to  Judgment,   280 

Speech  by  Hon.  Charles  O'Conor,     .      .      .      .      .  281-299 


§oak  (font— |[o«-|lesistants. 

Poem  on  John  Brown,  by  John  G.  "Whittier ;  and  his  Con- 
troversy with  William  Lloyd  Garrison  thereon. 

Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  Affair  at  Harper's  Eerry, 
by  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,        .      .       .  . 

Correspondence  between  Mrs.  M,  J.  C.  Mason,  of  Virginia, 
and  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child,  of  Massachusetts, 

Sermon  by  Rev.  M.  D.  Conway,  of  Cincinnati,  . 

Bunker  Hill  and  Harper's  Ferry  both  Failures,  by  Rev. 
Wm.  H.  Fumess  

§aak       —  ^mt  of  Kansas. 

Resolutions  of  the  People  of  Lawrence,  .  .  .  . . 
The  Age  and  the  Man,  by  Col.  William  A.  Phillips,  . 

^ooli  gw  — lofart  ^rofan's  prison  fctte. 


Letters  from  Northern  Men,   387-411 

Letters  from  Northern  Women,   413-426 

Letters  from  his  Family  and  Relatives,       .       .       .      ,  427-433 

§flok  ^tben — ^eaflj  of  Sfamsott. 

Seridces  at  Concord,   437-464 


303-315 

317-331 

333-347 
349-357 

358 


360 
361-383- 


Contents.  13 

Of  the  Winsted  (Conn.)  Herald,      ...      .       .  .16 

Of  »ev.  Mr.  Belcher,   ,  17G 

Of  Elizur  Wright,    .........  212 

Of  C.  K.  Whipple,   .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .      .  302 

Of  Richard  Bealf,     .      .      .      .      .      .       .      .  .384 

Of  A.  G.  Riddle,  386 

Of  Hon.  Daniel  R.  Tilden,  Cleveland,  Ohio,  .  .  .  .434 
Of  the  Fall  River  Monitor,      .      .      .      .      .      .  .456 

The  Touchstone,  by  William  Allinghame,  4  ...  10 
Old  John  Brown,  by  Rev.  E.  H.  Sears,    .      .      .       .      .  72 

With  a  Rose,  by  L.  M.  Alcott,  98 

The  Virginia  Scaffold,  by  Edna  Dean  Proctor,  .  .  .  .  124 
John  Bro\vn,  of  Harper's  Ferry,  by  C.  P,  H.,  ....  236 

The  Contrast,    .      .  238 

How  to  Save  the  Union,  by  James  Redpath,  ...  .  .  300 
John  Brown,  by  John  G.  Whittier,  ,  .  .  .  .  .  303 
The  True  Poem,  by  John  G.  Whittier,  .  .  .  .  .314 
Old  Brown,  by  William  D.  Howells,  .  .  .  .  .316 
John  Brown's  Final  Victory,  by  George  W.  Light,  .  .  .  332 
The  Hero's  Heart,  by  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child,  .  .  .  .348 
The  Hoary  Convict,  .      .      .       .      .      .  •    .      .  .400 

Courage  and  Hope,  410 

Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee,        .      .      .      .       .       .      .  411 

Miserere  Domine,  436 

Hymn,  438 

The  Soul's  Errand,  .      .  .440 

The  Execution  of  Montrose,  446 

Ode  to  John  Brown,         .       .       .       .       .       .       .       .  449 

Dirge,  by  F.  B.  Sanborn,  .  454 

Of  the  Editor, 

Of  Henry  D.  Thoreau,     .      ....       .       .  .42 

Of  WendeU  PhilUps,  66 

Of  Balph  Waldo  Emerson,      .......  7/ 

2 


14  Contents. 

Of  Kev.  E.  H.  Sears   72 

Of  Theodore  Parkpr,       .      .      .       .      .      .      .  .92 

Of  Theodore  Tilton,   97 

Of  Miss  L.  M.  Alcott,      ........  98 

Of  Miss  Edna  Dean  Proctor,   124 

Of  ilev.  Gilbert  Haven,   140 

Of  Dr.  George  B.  Cheever,   175 

Of  Kev.  Edwin  M.  Wheelock,   194 

Of  Rev.  Fales  Henry  Newhall,   211 

Of  EUzur  Wright   212 

Of  Hon.  Edward  Everett,   252 

Of  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher   279 

Of  Hon.  Charles  O'Conor   299 

Of  Charles  K.  Whipple,   302 

Of  John  G.  Whittier,   304 

Of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,   309 

Of  Rev.  James  Freeman  Clarke,   331 

Of  Mrs.  M.  J.  C.  Mason,  of  Virginia,       .....  336 

Of  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child,  of  Massachusetts,  ....  347 
Of  Rev.  M.  D.  Conway,  .      .      .      ,      .      .      .  .357 

Of  Col.  WilUam  A.  PhilUps   383 

Of  Richard  Realf,   384 

Of  Capt.  John  Brown,  («*  John  Brown's  Prison  Letters,")       .  386 
Of  Hon.  Daniel  R.  Tilden,      .      .       .      .      .      .  .386 

Coat  of  Arms  for  Modem  'Virginia,   614 

Editorial  Introduction,   457-468 

Slavery  and  the  Union,    .       .   459-464 

Relative  Power  of  the  North  and  the  South,    .      .      .  464-469 

The  Commerce  of  North  and  South,        ....  469-472 

Cost  of  the  Union,   472-478 

The  Great  Struggle,   478-484 

The  South  and  Northern  Interests   484-487 

Protection  and  Southern  Interests   487-490 

North  and  South,   490-494 

The  Case  as  it  stands   .       .  494-496 

Virginia   .  496-601 

Real  Weakness  of  the  South   502-606 

The  Northern  Slave  States,   606-609 

The  Real  Disunioniats   509-613 


BUNKER  HILL. 


"  He  cUured  to  undertake  what  you  in  the  seciirity  of  your  sanc- 
tums only  are  bold  to  preach.  He  failed ;  had  he  succeeded,  fifty 
coming  years  would  have  sanctified  his  grave  with  the  holiness  of  a 
second  Mount  Vernon ;  granite  and  marble  columns  would  rise  to 
his  memory ;  and  the  nation  would  add  another  to  her  jubilee  days 
whereon  her  orators  would  utter  their  noblest  sentences  in  eulogy  of 
Old  John  Brown.  Alas !  it  was  not  so  to  be  —  the  slave  toils  on  in  an 
tmloosened  chain ;  the  hero  gasps  in  a  dungeon ;  and,  the  Republican 
press  cannot  find  room  enough  for  their  renimciations  and  denimcia- 
tions  of  demented  old  John  Btown.  Por  one,  we  confess  we  love 
him  —  we  honor  him,  we  applaud  him.  He  his  honest  in  his  princi- 
ples — courageo\is  in  their  defence ;  and  we  have  yet  to  be  taught,  read- 
ing &om  that  Book  of  inspiration  we  all  acknowledge,  how  and  wherein 
old  John  Brown  is  a  transgressor.  Do  with  him  as  we  will,  his  ashes 
will  some  day  be  gathered  to  a  hero's  tomb ;  his  name  will  be  witten 
with  the  Winkelreids,  and  Tells,  and  Wasliingtons  of  history,  and  the 
American  schoolboy  shall  yet  be  taught  to  listen,  with  moistening  eye 
and  beating  heart,  to  the  story  of  Old  John  Brown." 


WtTtatead  (^Connecticuf)  Herald. 


I. 


Lecture  by  Henry  D.  Thoreau.* 

I TRUST  that  you  will  pardon  me  for  being  here.  I  do 
not  wish  to  force  my  thoughts  upon  you,  but  I  feel  forced 
myself.  Little  as  I  know  of  Captain  Brown,  I  would  fain 
do  my  part  to  correct  the  tone  and  the  statements  of  the 
newspapers,  and  of  my  countrymen  generally,  respecting  his 
character  and  actions.  It  costs  us  nothing  to  be  just.  We  can 
at  least  express  our  sympathy  with,  and  admiration  of,  him 
and  his  companions,  and  that  is  what  I  now  propose  to  do. 

First,  as  to  his  history.  I  will  endeavor  to  omit,  as  much 
as  possible,  what  you  have  already  read.  I  need  not  describe 
his  person  to  you,  for  probably  most  of  you  have  seen  and 
will  not  soon  forget  him.  I  am  told  that  his  grandfather, 
John  Brown,  was  an  officer  in  the  Revolution ;  that  he  him- 
self was  born  in  Connecticut  about  the  beginning  of  this  cen- 
tury, but  early  went  with  his  father  to  Ohio.  I  heard  him 
say  that  his  father  was  a  contractor  who  furnished  beef  to  the 
army  there,  in  the  war  of  1812  ;  that  he  accompanied  hirj  to 
the  camp,  and  assisted  him  in  that  employment,  seeing  a  good 
deal  of  military  life,  more,  perhaps,  than  if  he  had  been  a 
soldier,  for  he  was  often  present  at  the  councils  of  the  officers. 
Especially,  he  learned  by  experience  how  armies  are  supplied 
and  maintained  in  the  field  —  a  work  which,  he  observed,  re- 

*  A  Plea  for  Captain  John  Brown ;  read  to  the  citizens  of  Concord,  Mass.,  Sunday 
evening,  October  30, 1859;  also  as  the  Fifth  Lecture  of  the  Fraternity  Coarse,  ia  Boa* 
ton,  November  1. 

2*  (17) 


i8 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


quires  at  least  as  mucU  experience  and  skill  as  to  lead  them 
in  battle.  He  said  that  few  persons  had  any  conception  of 
the  cost,  even  the  pecuniary  cost,  of  firing  a  single  bullet  in 
war.  He  saw  enough,  at  any  rate,  to  disgust  him  with  a 
military  life  ;  indeed,  to  excite  in  him  a  great  abhorrence  of  it ; 
so  much  so,  that  though  he  was  tempted  by  the  offer  of  some 
petty  ofiice  in  the  army,  when  he  was  about  eighteen,  he  not 
only  declined  that,  but  he  also  refused  to  train  when  warned, 
and  was  fined  for  it.  He  then  resolved  that  he  would  never 
have  any  thing  to  do  with  any  war,  unless  it  were  a  war  for 
liberty. 

When  the  troubles  in  Kansas  began,  he  sent  several  of  his 
sons  thither  to  strengthen  the  party  of  the  Free  State,  men, 
fitting  them  out  with  such  weapons  as  he  had  ;  telling  them 
that  if  the  troubles  should  increase,  and  there  should  be  need 
of  him,  he  would  follow  to  assist  them  with  his  hand  and 
counsel.  This,  as  you  all  know,  he  soon  after  did  ;  and  it  was 
through  his  agency,  far  more  than  any  other's,  that  Kansas 
was  made  free. 

For  a  part  of  his  life  he  was  a  surveyor,  and  at  one  time 
he  was  engaged  in  wool-growing,  and  he  went  to  Europe  s& 
an  agent  about  that  business.  There,  as  every  where,  he 
had  his  eyes  about  him,  and  made  many  original  observations. 
He  said,  for  instance,  that  he  saw  why  the  soil  of  England 
was  so  rich,  and  that  of  Geimany  (I  think  it  was)  so  poor, 
and  he  thought  of  writing  to  some  of  the  crowned  heads  about 
it  It  was  because  in  England  the  peasantry  live  on  the  soil 
■which  they  cultivate,  but  in  Germany  they  are  gathered  into 
villages,  at  night.  It^  is  a  pity  that  he  did  not  make  a  book 
of  his  observations. 

I  should  say  that  he  was  an  old-fashioned  man  in  hia 
respect  for  the  Constitution,  and  his  faith  in  the  permanence 
of  this  Union.  Slavery  he  deemed  to  be  wholly  opposed  to 
these,  and  he  was  its  determined  foe. 

He  was  by  descent  and  birth  a  New  England  farmer,  a 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  19 

man  of  great  common  sense,  deliberate  and  practical  as  that 
class  is,  and  tenfold  more  so.  He  was  like  the  best  of  those 
who  stood  at  Concord  Bridge  once,  on  Lexington  Common, 
and  on  Bunker  Hill,  only  he  was  firmer  and  higher  princi- 
pled than  any  that  I  have  chanced  to  hear  of  as  there.  It 
was  no  abolition  lecturer  that  converted  him.  Ethan  Allen 
and  Stark,  with  whom  he  may  in  some  respects  be  compared, 
were  rangers  in  a  lower  and  less  important  field.  They 
could  bravely  face  their  country's  foes,  but  he  had  the  cour- 
age to  face  his  country  herself,  when  she  was  in  the  wrong. 
A  Western  writer  says,  to  account  for  his  escape  from  so 
many  perils,  that  he  was  concealed  under  a  "rural  exterior  j" 
as  if,  in  that  prairie  land,  a  hero  should,  by  good  rights,  wear 
a  citizen's  dress  only. 

He  did  not  go  to  the  college  called  Harvard,  good  old  Alma 
Mater  is  she  is.  He  was  not  fed  on  the  pap  that  is  there 
furnished.  As  he  phrased  it,  "I  know  no  more  of  grammar 
than  one  of  your  calves."  But  he  went  to  the  great  univer- 
sity of  the  West,  where  he  sedulously  puiv^ued  the  study  of 
Liberty,  for  which  he  had  early  betrayed  a  fondness,  and 
having  taken  many  degrees,  he  finally  commenced  the  public 
practice  of  Humanity  in  Kansas,  as  you  all  know.  Such 
were  his  humanities^  and  not  any  study  of  grammar.  .  He 
would  have  lefl  a  Greek  accent  slanting  the  wrong  way,  and 
righted  up  a  falling  man. 

He  was  one  of  that  class  of  whom  we  hear  a  great  deal, 
but,  for  the  most  part,  see  nothing  at  all — the  Puritans.  It 
would  be  jn  vain  to  kill  him.  He  died  lately  in  the  time  of 
Cromwell,  but  he  reappeared  here.  Why  should  he  not? 
Some  of  the  Puritan  stock  are  said  to  have  come  over  and 
settled  in  New  England.  They  were  a  class  that  did  some- 
thing else  than  celebrate  their  forefathers'  day,  and  eat 
parched  corn  in  remembrance  of  that  time.  They  were  nei- 
ther Democrats  nor  Republicans,  but  men  of  simple  habits, 
straightforward,  prayerful ;  not  thinking  much  of  rulers  who 


20 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


did  not  fear  God,  not  making  many  compromises,  nor  seeking 
after  available  candidates. 

*'  In  his  camp,"  as  one  has  recently  written,  and  as  I  have 
myself  heard  him  state,  "  he  permitted  no  profanity ;  no  man 
of  loose  morals  was  suffered  to  remain  there,  unless,  indeed, 
as  a  prisoner  of  war.  *  I  ^.d  rather,'  said  he,  '  have  the 
small'pox,  yellow  fever,  and  cholera,  all  together  in  my  camp, 
than  a  man  without  principle.  *  *  *  It  is  a  mistake,  sir, 
that  our  people  make,  when  they  think  that  bullies  are  the 
best  fighters,  or  that  they  are  the  fit  men  to  oppose  these 
Southerners.  Give  me  men  of  good  principles,  —  God-fear- 
ing men,  — •  men  who  respect  themselves,  and  with  a  dozen  of 
them  I  will  oppose  any  hundred  such  men  as  these  Buford  ruf- 
fians.' "  He  said  that  if  one  offered  himself  to  be  a  soldier  under 
him,  who  was  forward  to  tell  what  he  could  or  would  do,  if  he 
could  only  get  sight  of  the  enemy,  he  had  but  little  confidence 
in  him. 

He  was  never  able  to  find  more  than  a  score  or  so  of  re- 
cruits whom  he  would  accept,  and  only  about  a  dozen,  among 
them  his  sons,  in  whom  he  had  perfect  faith.  When  he  was 
here,  some  years  ago,  he  showed  to  a  few  a  little  manuscript 
book, — his  "  orderly  book  "  I  think  he  called  it,  —  containing 
the  names  of  his  company  in  Kansas,  and  the  rules  by  which 
they  bound  themselves ;  and  he  stated  that  several  of  them  had 
already  sealed  the  contract  with  their  blood.  When  some  one 
remarked  that,  with  the  addition  of  a  chaplain,  it  would  have 
been  a  perfect  Cromwellian  troop,  he  observed  that  he  would 
have  been  glad  to  add  a  chaplain  to  the  list,  if  he  could  have 
found  one  who  could  fill  that  office  worthily.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  find  one  for  the  United  States  army.  I  believe 
tliat  he  had  prayers  in  his  camp  morning  and  evening,  never- 
theless. 

He  was  a  man  of  Spartan  habits,  and  at  sixty  was  scrupu- 
lous about  his  diet  at  your  table,  excusing  himself  by  saying 
that  he  must  eat  sparingly  and  fare  hard,  as  became  a  soldier 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  21 


or  one  who  was  fitting  himself  for  difficult  enterprises,  a  life 
of  exposure. 

A  man  of  rare  common  sense  and  directness  of  speech,  as 
of  action ;  a  transcendentalist  above  all,  a  man  of  ideas  and 
principles,  —  that  was  what  distinguished  him.  Not  yielding 
to  a  whim  or  transient  impulse,  but  carrying  out  the  purpose 
of  a  life.  I  noticed  that  he  did  not  overstate  any  thing,  but 
spoke  within  bounds.  I  remember,  particularly,  how,  in  his 
speech  here,  he  referred  to  what  his  family  had  suffered  in 
Kansas,  without  ever  giving  the  least  vent  to  his  pent-up  fire. 
It  was  a  volcano  with  an  ordinary  chimney-flue.  Also  refer- 
ring to  the  deeds  of  certain  Border  Ruffians,  he  said,  rapidly 
paring  away  his  speech,  like  an  experienced  soldier,  keeping 
a  reserve  of  force  and  meaning,  "  They  had  a  perfect  right  to 
be  hung."  He  was  not  in  the  least  a  rhetorician,  was  not  talk- 
ing to  Buncombe  or  his  constituents  any  where,  had  no  need 
to  invent  any  thing,  but  to  tell  the  simple  truth,  and  commu- 
nicate his  own  resolution ;  therefore  he  appeared  incompara- 
bly strong,  and  eloquence  in  Congress  and  elsewhere  seemed 
to  me  at  a  discount.  It  was  like  the  speeches  of  Cromwell 
compared  with  those  of  an  ordinary  king. 

As  for  his  tact  and  prudence,  I  will  merely  say,  that  at  a 
time  when  scarcely  a  man  from  the  Free  States  was  able  to 
reach  Kansas  by  any  direct  route,  at  least  without  having  his 
arms  taken  from  him,  he,  carrying  what  imperfect  guns  and 
other  weapons  he  could  collect,  openly  and  slowly  drove  an 
ox-cart  through  Missouri,  apparently  in  the  capacity  of  a  sur- 
veyor, with  his  surveying  compass  exposed  in  it,  and  so 
passed  unsuspected,  and  had  ample  opportunity  to  learn  the 
designs  of  the  enemy.  For  some  time  after  his  arrival  he 
still  followed  the  same  profession.  When,  for  instance,  he 
saw  a  knot  of  the  ruffians  on  the  prairie,  discussing,  of  course, 
the  single  topic  which  then  occupied  their  minds,  he  would, 
perhaps,  take  his  compass  and  one  of  his  sons,  and  proceed 
to  run  an  imaginary  line  right  through  the  very  spot  on  which 


22 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


that  conclave  bad  assembled,  and  when  be  came  up  to  tbem, 
be  would  naturally  pause  and  have  some  talk  witb  tbem, 
learning  tbeir  news,  and,  at  last,  all  tbeir  plans  perfectly ; 
and  baving  thus  completed  bis  real  survey,  be  would  re- 
sume bis  imaginary  one,  and  run  on  bis  line  till  be  was 
otit  of  sigbt. 

.  "WTien  I  expressed  surprise  that  be  could  live  in  Kansas  at 
all,  witb  a  price  set  upon  hi&  bead,  and  so  large  a  number, 
including  tbe  autborities,  exasperated  against  bim,  be  account- 
ed for  it  by  saying,  "  It  is  perfectly  well  understood  that  I  will 
not  be  taken."  Much  of  tbe  time  for  some  years  be  has  had 
to  skulk  in  swamps,  suffering  from  poverty  and  from  sickness, 
which  was  tbe  consequence  of  exposure,  befriended  only  by 
Indians  and  a  few  whites.  But  though  it  might  be  known 
that  be  was  lurking  in  a  particular  swamp,  his  foes  commonly 
did  not  care  to  go  in  after  bim.  He  could  even  come  out  into 
a  town  where  there  were  more  Border  Buffians  than  Free 
State  men,  and  transact  some  business,  without  delaying  long, 
and  yet  not  be  molested ;  for  said  be,  "  No  little  handful  of 
men  were  willing  to  undertake  it,  and  a  large  body  could  not 
be  got  together  in  season." 

As  for  his  recent  failure,  we  do  not  know  tbie  facts  about  it. 
It  was  evidently  far  from  being  a  wild  and  desperate  attempt. 
His  enemy,  Mr.  Yallandingham,  is  compelled  to  say,  that  "  it 
was  among  the  best  planned  and  executed  conspiracies  that 
ever  failed." 

Not  to  mention  bis  other  successes,  was  it  a  failure,  or  did 
it  show  a  want  of  good  management,  to  deliver  from  bondage 
a  dozen  human  beings,  and  walk  off  witb  tbem  by  broad  day- 
light, for  weeks  if  not  months,  at  a  leisurely  pace,  through  one 
State  afler  another,  for  half  the  length  of  tbe  North,  conspicu- 
ous to  all  parties,  with  a  price  set  upon  his  bead,  going  into  a 
court  room  on  bis  way  and  telling  what  he  bad  done,  thus 
convincing  Missouri  that  it  was  not  profitable  to  try  to  bold 
slaves  in  his  neighborhood  ?  —  and  this,  not  because  the  gov- 


Henry  D,  Thoreau.  23 

eminent  menials  were  lenient,  but  because  they  were  afraid 
of  him. 

Yet  he  did  not  attribute  his  success,  foolishly,  to  "  his  star," 
or  to  any  magic.  He  said,  truly,  that  the  reason  why  such 
greatly  superior  numbers  quailed  before  him,  was,  as  one  of 
his  prisoners  confessed,  because  they  lajcked  a  came  —  a  kind 
of  armor  which  he  and  his  party  never  lacked.  When  the 
time  came,  few  men  were  found  willing  to  lay  down  their 
lives  in  defence  of  what  they  knew  to  be  wrong;  they  did  not 
like  that  this  should  be  their  last  act  in  this  world. 

But  to  make  haste  to  his  last  act^  and  its  effects. 

The  newspapers  seem  to  ignore,  or  perhaps  are  really  igno- 
rant of  the  fact,  that  there  are  at  least  as  many  as  two  or 
three  individuals  to  a  town  throughout  the  North,  who  think 
much  as  the  present  speaker  does  about  him  and  his  enter- 
prise. I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  they  are  an  important 
and  growing  party.  We  aspire  to  be  something  more  than 
stupid  and  timid  chattels,  pretending  to  read  history  and  our 
Bibles,  but  desecrating  every  house  and  every  day  we  breathe 
in.  Perhaps  anxious  politicians  may  prove  that  only  seven- 
teen white  men  and  five  negroes  were  concerned  in  the  late 
enterprise ;  but  their  very  anxiety  to  prove  this  might  sug- 
gest to  themselves  that  all  is  not  told.  Why  do  they  still 
dodge  the  truth  ?  They  are  so  anxious  because  of  a  dim  con- 
sciousness of  the  fact,  which  they  do  not  distinctly  face,  that 
at  least  a  million  of  the  free  inhabitants  of  the  United  States 
would  have  rejoiced  if  it  had  succeeded.  They  at  most  only 
criticise  the  tactics.  Though  we  wear  no  crape,  the  thought  of 
that  man's  position  and  probable  fate  is  spoiling  many  a  man's 
day  here  at  the  North  for  other  thinking.  If  any  one  who 
has  seen  him  here  can  pursue  successfully  any  other  train  of 
thought,  I  do  not  know  what  he  is  made  of.  If  there  is  any 
such  who  gets  his  usual  allowance  of  sleep,  I  will  warrant 
him  to  fatten  easily  under  any  circumstances  which  do  not 
touch  his  body  or  purse.   I  put  a  piece  of  paper  and  a  pencil 


24  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 

under  my  pillow,  and  when  I  could  not  sleep,  I  wrote  in  the 
dark. 

On  the  whole,  my  respect  for  my  fellow-men,  except  as 
one  may  outweigh  a  million,  is  not  being  increased  these  days.- 
I  have  noticed  the  cold-blooded  way  in  which  newspaper 
writers  and  men  generally  speak  of  this  event,  as  if  an  ordinar 
ry  malefactor,  though  one  of  unusual  "  pluck,"  —  as  the  Grov- 
ernor  of  Virginia  is  reported  to  have  said,  using  the  language 
of  the  cock-pit,  "  the  gamest  man  he  ever  saw,"  —  had  been 
caught,  and  were  about  to  be  hung.  He  was  not  dreaming 
of  his  foes  when  the  governor  thought  he  looked  so  brave.  It 
turns  what  sweetness  I  have  to  gall,  to  hear,  or  hear  of,  the 
remarks  of  some  of  my  neighbors.  "When  we  heard  at  first 
that  he  was  dead,  one  of  my  townsmen  observed  that  "  he  died 
as  the  fool  dieth ; "  which,  pardon  me,  for  an  instant  suggest- 
ed a  likeness  in  him  dying  to  my  neighbor  living.  Others, 
craven-hearted,  said  disparagingly,  that  "he  threw  his  life 
away,"  because  he  resisted  the  government.  Which  way  have 
they  thrown  their  lives,  pray  ?  —  Such  as  would  praise  a  man 
for  attacking  singly  an  ordinary  band  of  thieves  or  murder- 
ers. I  hear  another  ask,  Yankee-like,  "  What  will  he  gain  by 
it?"  as  if  he  expected  to  fill  his  pockets  by  this  enterprise. 
Such  a  one  has  no  idea  of  gain  but  in  this  worldly  sense.  If 
it  does  not  lead  to  a  "  surprise  "  party,  if  he  does  not  get  a  new 
pair  of  boots,  or  a  vote  of  thanks,  it  must  be  a  failure.  "  But 
he  won't  gain  any  thing  by  it."  Well,  no,  I  don't  suppose  he 
could  get  four-and-sixpence  a  day  for  being  hung,  take  the 
year  round ;  but  then  he  stands  a  chance  to  save  a  considera- 
ble part  of  his  soul  —  and  such  a  soul !  —  when  you  do  not. 
No  doubt  you  can  get  more  in  your  market  for  a  quart  of 
milk  than  for  a  quart  of  blood,  but  that  is  not  the  market 
that  heroes  carry  their  blood  to. 

Such  do  not  know  that  like  the  seed  is  the  fruit,  and  that, 
in  the  moral  world,  when  good  seed  is  planted,  good  fruit  is 
inevitable,  and  does  not  depend  on  our  watering  and  cultivat- 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


25 


ing ;  that  when  you  plant,  or  burj,  a  hero  in  his  field,  a  crop 
of  heroes  is  sure  to  spring  up.  This  is  a  seed  of  such  force 
and  vitality,  that  it  does  not  ask  our  leave  to  germinate. 

The  momentary  charge  at  Balaclava,  in  obedience  to  a 
blundering  command,  proving  what  a  perfect  machine  the 
soldier  is,  has,  properly  enough,  been  celebrated  by  a  poet 
laureate ;  but  the  steady,  and  for  the  most  part  successful 
charge  of  this  man,  for  some  years,  against  the  legions  of 
Slavery,  in  obedience  to  an  infinitely  higher  command,  is  as 
much  more  memorable  than  that,  as  an  intelligent  and  consci- 
entious man  is  superior  to  a  machine.  Do  you  think  that  that 
will  go  unsung  ? 

"  Served  him  right" — "A  dangerous  man"  —  "He  is  un- 
doubtedly insane."  So  they  pi'oceed  to  live  their  sane,  and 
wise,  and  altogether  admirable  lives,  reading  their  Plutarch  a 
little,  but  chiefly  pausing  at  that  feat  of  Putnam,  who  was  let 
down  into  a  wolfs  den ;  and  in  this  wise  they  nourish  them- 
selves for  brave  and  patriotic  deeds  some  time  or  other.  The 
Tract  Society  could  afford  to  print  that  story  of  Putnam.  You 
might  open  the  district  schools  Avith  the  reading  of  it,  for 
there  is  nothing  about  Slavery  or  the  Church  in  it ;  unless  it 
occurs  to  the  reader  that  some  pastors  are  wolves  in  sheep's 
clothing.  "  The  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  For- 
eign Miirsions  "  even,  might  dare  to  protest  against  that  wolf. 
I  have  heard  of  boards,  and  of  American  boards,  but  it 
chances  tliat  I  never  heard  of  this  particular  lumber  till 
lately.  And  yet  I  hear  of  Northern  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, by  families,  buying  a  "life  membership"  in  such  so- 
cieties as  these;  —  a  life-membership  in  the  grave!  You 
can  get  buried  cheaper  than  that. 

Our  foes  are  in  our  midst  and  all  about  us.  There  is 
hardly  a  house  but  is  divided  against  itself,  for  our  foe  is 
the  all  but  universal  woodenness  of  both  head  and  heart, 
the  want  of  vitality  in  man,  which  is  the  effect  of  our  vice ; 
and  hejice  are  begotten  fear,  superstition,  bigotry,  persecu- 
3 


26  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


tion,  and  slavery  of  all  kinds.  We  are  mere  figure-heads 
upon  a  hulk,  with  livers  in  the  place  of  hearts.  The  curse 
is  tlie  worship  of  idols,  which  at  length  changes  the  worship- 
per into  a  stone  image  himself ;  and  the  New  Englander  is 
just  as  much  an  idolater  as  the  Hindoo.  This  man  was  an 
exception,  for  he  did  not  set  up  even  a  political  graven 
image  between  him  and  his  God. 

A  church  that  can  never  have  done  with  excommunicat- 
ing Christ  while  it  exists !  Away  with  your  broad  and  flat 
churches,  and  your  narrow  and  tall  churches  !  Take  a  step 
forwai'd,  and  invent  a  new  style  of  out-houses.  Invent  a  salt 
that  will  save  you,  and  defend  our  nostrils. 

The  modern  Christian  is  a  man  who  has  consented  to  say 
all  the  prayers  in  the  liturgy,  provided  you  will  let  him  go 
straight  to  bed  and  sleep  quietly  afterward.  All  his  prayers 
begin  with  "  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,"  and  he  is  forever 
looking  forward  to  the  time  when  he  shall  go  to  his  "  long 
rest."  He  has  consented  to  perform  certain  old  established 
charities,  too,  after  a  fashion,  but  he  does  not  wish  to  hear 
of  any  new-fangled  ones ;  he  doesn't  wish  to  have  any  sup- 
plementary articles  added  to  the  contract,  to  fit  it  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  He  shows  the  whites  of  his  eyes  on  the  Sabbath, 
and  the  blacks  all  the  rest  of  the  week.  The  evil  is  not 
merely  a  stagnation  of  blood,  but  a  stagnation  of  spirit. 
Many,  no  doubt,  are  well  disposed,  but  sluggish  by  constitu- 
tion and  by  habit,  and  they  cannot  conceive  of  a  man  who 
is  actuated  by  higher  motives  than  they  are.  Accordingly 
they  pronounce  this  man  insane,  for  they  know  that  they 
could  never  act  as  he  does,  as  long  as  they  were  themselves. 

"We  dream  of  foreign  countries,  of  other  times  and  races 
of  men,  placing  them  at  a  distance  in  history  or  space ;  but 
let  some  significant  event  like  the  present  occur  in  our  midst, 
and  we  discover,  often,  this  distance  and  this  strangeness 
between  us  and  our  nearest  neighbors.  T]mj  are  our  Aus- 
trias,  and  Chinas,  and  South  Sea  Islands.    Our  crowded  soci- 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


ety  becomes  well  spaced  all  at  once,  clean  and  handsome  to 
the  eye,  a  city  of  magnificent  distances.  We  discover  why  it 
was  tliat  we  never  got  beyond  compliments  and  surfaces  with 
them  before ;  we  become  aware  of  as  many  versts  between 
us  and  them  as  there  are  between  a  wandering  Tartar  and 
a  Chinese  town.  The  thoughtful  man  becomes  a  hermit  in 
the  thoroughfares  of  the  market-place.  Iinpassable  seas  sud- 
denly find  their  level  between  us,  or  dumb  steppes  stretch 
themselves  out  there.  It  is  the  difference  of  constitution,  of 
intelligence,  and  faith,  and  not  streams  and  mountains,  that 
make  the  true  and  impassable  boundaries  between  individuals 
and  between  states.  None  but  the  like-minded  can  come 
plenipotentiary  to  our  court. 

I  read  all  the  newspapers  I  could  get  within  a  week  after 
this  event,  and  I  do  not  remember  in  them  a  single  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  for  these  men.  I  have  since  seen  one  noble 
statement,  in  a  Boston  paper,  not  editorial.  Some  volumi- 
nous sheets  decided  not  to  print  the  full  report  of  Brown's 
words  to  the  exclusion  of  other  matter.  It  was  as  if  a  pub- 
lisher should  reject  the  manuscript  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  print  Wilson's  last  speech.  The  same  journal  which 
contained  this  pregnant  news^  was  chiefly  filled,  in  parallel 
columns,  with  the  reports  of  the  political  conventions  that 
were  being  held.  But  the  descent  to  them  was  too  steep. 
They  should  have  been  spared  this  contrast,  been  printed  in 
an  extra  at  least.  To  turn  from  the  voices  and  deeds  of 
earnest  men  to  the  melding  of  political  conventions !  Office- 
seekers  and  speech-makers,  who  do  not  so  much  as  lay  an 
honest  egg,  but  wear  their  breasts  bare  upon  an  egg  of  chalk ! 
Their  great  game  is  the  game  of  straws,  or  rather  that  uni- 
versal aboriginal  •  game  of  the  platter,  at  which  the  Indians 
cviqH  hub,  buh !  Exclude  the  reports  of  religious  and  politi- 
cal conventions,  and  publish  the  words  of  a  living  man. 

But  I  object  not  so  much  to  what  they  have  omitted,  as  to 
what  they  have  inserted.    Even  the  Liberator  called  it  "a 


28 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


misguided,  wild,  and  apparently  insane  —  effort."  As  for  the 
hercl  of  newspapers  and  magazines,  I  do  not  chance  to  know 
an  editor  in  the  country  who  will  deliberately  print  any  thing 
which  he  knows  will  ultimately  and  permanently  reduce  the 
number  of  his  subscribers.  They  do  not  believe  that  it  would 
be  expedient.  How  then  can  they  print  truth?  If  we  do 
not  say  pleasant  things,  they  argue,  nobody  will  attend  to  us. 
And  so  they  do  like  some  travelling  auctioneers,  who  sing  an 
obscene  song  in  order  to  draw  a  crowd  around  them.  Re- 
publican editors,  obliged  to  get  their  sentences  ready  for  the 
morning  edition,  and  accustomed  to  look  at  every  thing  by  the 
twilight  of  politics,  express  no  admiration,  nor  true  sorrow 
even,  but  call  these  men  "deluded  fanatics"  —  "mistaken 
men  "  —  "  insane,"  or  "  crazed."  It  suggests  what  a  sane  set 
of  editors  we  are  blessed  with,  not  "  mistaken  men  "  ;  who 
know  very  well  on  which,  side  their  bread  is  buttered,  at 
least. 

A  man  does  a  brave  and  humane  deed,  and  at  once,  on  all 
sides,  we  hear  people  and  parties  declaring,  "  I  didn't  do  it, 
nor  countenance  him  to  do  it,  in  any  conceivable  way.  It  can't 
be  fairly  inferred  from  my  past  career."  I,  for  one,  am  not 
interested  to  hear  you  define  your  position.  I  don't  know  that 
I  ever  was,  or  ever  shall  be.  I  think  it  is  mere  egotism,  or 
impertinent  at  this  time.  Ye  needn't  take  so  much  pains  to 
wash  your  skirts  of  him.  No  intelligent  man  will  ever  ^je 
convinced  that  he  was  any  creature  of  yours.  He  went  and 
came,  as  he  himself  informs  us,  "  under  the  auspices  of  Joha 
Brown  and  nobody  else."  The  Republican  party  does  not 
perceive  how  many  his  failure  will  make  to  vote  more  cor- 
rectly than  they  would  have  them.  They  have  counted  the 
votes  of  Pennsylvania  &  Co.,  but  they  have  not  correctly 
counted  Captain  Brown's  vote.  He  has  taken  the  wind  out 
of  their  sails,  the  little  wind  they  had,  and  they  may  as  well 
lie  to  and  repair. 

"What  though  he  did  not  belong  to  your  clique !  Though 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


29 


you  may  not  approve  of  his  method  or  his  principles,  recog- 
nize his  magr.aniraity.  Would  you  not  like  to  claim  kindred- 
ship  Avith  him  in  that,  though,  in  no  other  thing  he  is  like,  or 
likely,  to  you  ?  Do  you  think  that  you  would  lose  your  repu- 
tation so  ?  What  you  lost  at  the  spile,  you  would  gain  at  the 
bung. 

If  they  do  not  mean  all  this,  then  they  do  not  speak  the 
truth,  and  say  what  they  mean.  They  are  simply  at  their 
old  tricks  still. 

"It  was  always  conceded  to  him,"  says  one  who  calls  Mm 
crazy,  "  that  he  was  a  conscientious  man,  very  modest  in  his 
demeanor,  apparently  inoffensive,  until  the  subject  of  Slavery 
was  introduced,  when  he  would  exhibit  a  feeling  of  indigna- 
tion unparalleled." 

The  slave-ship  is  on  her  way,  crowded  with  its  dying  vic- 
tims ;  new  cargoes  are  being  added  in  mid  ocean ;  a  small 
crew  of  slaveholders,  countenanced  by  a  large  body  of  passen- 
gers, is  smothering  four  millions  under  the  hatches,  and  yet 
the  politician  asserts  that  the  only  proper  way  by  which 
deliverance  is  to  be  obtained,  is  by  "  the  quiet  dilFusion  of  the 
sentiments  of  humanity,"  without  any  "  outbreak."  As  if  the 
sentiments  of  humanity  were  ever  found  unaccompanied  by 
its  deeds,  and  you  could  disperse  them,  all  finished  to  order, 
the  pure  article,  as  easily  as  water  with  a  watering-pot,  and 
so  lay  the  dust.  What  is  that  that  I  hear  cast  overboard  ? 
The  bodies  of  the  dead  that  have  found  deliverance.  That  is 
the  way  we  are  "diffusing"  humanity,  and  its  sentiments 
with  it. 

Prominent  and  influential  editors,  accustomed  to  deal  with 
politicians,  men  of  an  infinitely  lower  grade,  say,  in  their  ig- 
norance, that  he  acted  "  on  the  principle  of  revenge."  They 
do  not  know  the  man.  They  must  etilarge  themselves  to 
conceive  of  him.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  time  will  come 
when  they  will  begin  to  see  him  as  he  was.  They  have  got 
to  conceive  of  a  man  of  faith  and  of  religious  principle,  and 


30 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


not  a  politician  nor  an  Indian ;  of  a  man  who  did  not  wait  till 
he  was  personally  interfered  wiih  or  thwarted  in  some  harm- 
less business  before  he  gave  his  life  to  the  canse  of  the 
oppressed. 

If  Walker  may  be  considered  the  representative  of  the 
South,  I  wish  I  could  say  that  Brown  was  the  representative 
of  the  North.  He  was  a  superior  man.  He  did  not  value 
his  bodily  life  in  comparison  with  ideal  things.  He  did  not 
recognize  unjust  human  laws,  but  resisted  them  as  he  was 
bid.  For  once  we  are  lifted  out  of  the  trivialness  and  dust 
of  politics  into  the  region  of  truth  and  manhood.  No  man  in 
America  has  ever  stood  up  so  persistently  and  elFectively  for 
the  dignity  of  human  nature,  knowing  himself  for  a  man,  and 
the  equal  of  any  and  all  governments.  In  that  sense  he  was 
the  most  American  of  us  all.  He  needed  no  babbling  lawyer, 
making  false  issues,  to  defend  him.  '  He  was  moi'e  tlian  a 
match  for  all  the  judges  that  American  voters,  or  office-hold- 
ers of  whatever  grade,  can  create.  He  could  not  have  been 
tried  by  a  jury  of  his  peers,  because  his  peers  did  not  exist. 
"When  a  man  stands  up  serenely  against  the  condemnation 
and  vengeance  of  mankind,  rising  above  them  literally  by  a 
whole  hody,  —  even  though  he  were  of  late  the  vilest  murder- 
er, who  has  settled  that  matter  with  himself,  —  the  spectacle 
is  a  sublime  one,  —  didn't  ye  know  it,  ye  Liberators,  ye  Trib- 
unes, ye  Republicans?  —  and  we  become  criminal  in  compar- 
ison. Do  yourselves  the  honor  to  recognize  him.  He  needs 
none  of  your  respect. 

As  for  the  Democratic  journals,  they  are  not  human  enough 
to  affect  me  at  all.  I  do  not  feel  indignation  at  any  thing 
they  may  say. 

I  am  aware  that  I  anticipate  a  little,  that  he  was  still,  at 
the  last  accounts,  alive  in  the  hands  of  his  foes;  but  that 
being  the  case,  I  have  all  along  found  myself  thinking  and 
speaking  of  him  as  physically  dead. 

I  do  not  believe  in  erecting  statues  to  those  who  still  live 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  31 


in  oux'  hearts,  whose  bones  have  not  yet  crutabled  in  the  earth 
around  us,  but  I  would  rather  see  the  statue  of  Captain 
Brown  in  the  Massachusetts  State-House  yard,  than  that  of 
any  other  uan  whom  I  know.  I  rejoice  that  I  live  in  this 
age  —  that  I  am  his  contemporary. 

Wliat  a  contrast,  when  we  turn  to  that  political  party 
which  is  so  anxiously  shuffling  him  and  his  plot  out  of  its 
way,  and  looking  around  for  some  available  slaveholder,  per- 
haps, to  be  its  candidate,  at  least  for  one  who  will  execute 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  all  those  other  unjust  laws 
which  he  took  up  arms  to  annul! 

Insane !  A'  father  and  six  sons,  and  one  son-in-law,  and 
several  more  men  besides, —  as  many  at  least  as  twelve  disci- 
ples,—  all  struck  with  insanity  at  once;  while  the  sane  tyrant 
holds  with  a  firmer  gripe  than  ever  his  four  millions  of  slaves, 
and  a  thousand  sane  editors,  his  abettors,  are  saving  their 
country  and  their  bacon !  Just  as  insane  were  his  efforts  in 
Kansas.  Ask  the  tyrant  who  is  his  most  dangerous  foe,  the 
sane  man  or  the  insane.  Do  the  thousands  who  know  him 
best,  who  have  rejoiced  at  his  deeds  in  Kansas,  and  have 
afforded  him  material  aid  there,  think  him  insane  ?  Such  a 
use  of  this  word  is  a  mere  trope  with  most  who  persist  in 
using  it,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  the  rest  have 
already  in  silence  retracted  their  words. 

Read  his  admirable  answers  to  Mason  and  others.  How 
they  are  dwarfed  and  defeated  by  the  contrast !  On  the  o'le 
side,  half  brutish,  half  timid  questioning  ;  on  the  other,  truth, 
clear  as  lightning,  crashing  into  their  obscene  temples.  They 
are  made  to  stand  with  Pilate,  and  Gesler,  and  the  Inqui- 
sition. IIow  ineffectual  their  speech  and  action  !  and  what  a 
void  their  silence  !  They  are  but  helpless  tools  in  this  great 
work.  It  was  no  human  power  that  gathered  them  about 
tills  preacher. 

Wliat  have  Massachusetts  and  the  North  sent  a  few  sane 
representatives  to  Congress  for,  of  late  years  ?  —  to  declare 


32      ■  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 

with  elfect  what  kind  of"  sentiments?  All  their  speeches  put 
together  and  boiled  down,  —  and  probably  they  themselves 
will  confess  it,  —  do  not  match  for  manly  directness  and  force, 
and  for  simple  truth,  the  few  casual  remarks  of  crazy  John 
Brown,  on  the  floor  of  the  Harper's  Ferry  engine  house  ;  — 
that  man  whom  you  are  about  to  hang,  to  send  to  the  other 
world,  though  not  to  represent  you  there.  No,  he  was  not 
our  representative  in  aiiy  sense.  He  was  too  fair  a  specimen 
of  a  man  to  represent  the  like  of  us.  Who,  then,  \ccre  his 
constituents  ?  If  you  read  his  words  understandingly  you 
will  find  out.  In  his  case  there  is  no  idle  eloquence,  no  made, 
nor  maiden  speech,  no  compliments  to  the  oppressor.  Truth 
is  bis  inspirer,  and  earnestness  the  polisher  of  his  sentences. 
He  could  atford  to  lose  his  Sharpe's  rifles,  while  he  retained 
his  faculty  of  speech,  a  Sharpe's  rifle  of  infinitely  surer  and 
longer  range. 

And  the  New  York  Herald  reports  the  conversation  "  ver- 
hatim  "  !  It  does  not  know  of  what  undying  words  it  is  made 
the  vehicle. 

I  have  no  respect  for  the  penetration  of  any  man  who  can 
read  the  report  of  that  conversation,  and  still  call  the  princi- 
pa?  in  it  insane.  It  has  the  ring  of  a  saner  sanity  than  an 
ordinary  discipline  and  habits  of  life,  than  an  ordinary  organ- 
ization, secure.  Take  any  sentence  of  it  —  "Any  questions 
that  I  can  honorably  answer,  I  Avill ;  not  otherwise.  So  far  as 
I  am  myself  concerned,  I  have  told  every  thing  truthfully.  I 
value  my  word,  sir."  The  few  who  talk  about  his  vindictive 
spirit,  while  they  really  admire  his  heroism,  have  no  test  by 
which  to  detect  a  noble  man,  no  amalgam  to  combine  with  his 
pure  gold.    They  mix  their  own  dross  with  it. 

It  is  a  relief  to  turn  from  these  slanders  to  the  testimony  of 
his  more  truthful,  but  frightened,  jailers  and  hangmen.  Gov- 
ernor Wise  speaks  far  more  justly  and  appreciatingly  of  him 
than  any  Northern  editor,  or  politician,  or  public  personage, 
that  I  chance  to  have  heard  from.   I  know  that  you  can  aifoixl 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


33 


to  hear  him  again  on  this  subject.  He  says :  "  They  are  them- 
selves mistaken  who  take  him  to  be  a  madman.  .  .  .  Ho 
is  cool,  collected,  and  indomitable,  and  it  is  but  just  to  him  to 
say,  that  he  was  humane  to  his  prisoners.  .  .  .  And 
he  inspired  me  with  great  trust  in  jiis  integrity  as  a  man  of 
truth.  '  He  is  a  fanatic,  vain  and  garrulous,"  (I  leave  that 
part  to  Mr.  Wise,)  "  but  firm,  truthful,  and  intelligent.  His 
men,  too,  who  survive,  are  like  him.  .  .  .  Colonel 
Washington  says  that  he  was  the  coolest  and  firmest  man  he 
ever  saw  in  defying  danger  and  death.  With  one  son  dead 
by  his  side,  and  another  shot  through,  he  felt  the  pulse  of  his 
dying  son  with  one  hand,  and  held  his  rifle  with  the  other, 
and  commanded  his  men  with  the  utmost  composure,  encour- 
aging them  to  be  firm,  and  to  sell  their  lives  as  dear  as  they 
could.  Of  the  three  white  prisoners,  Brown,  Stephens,  and 
Coppic,  it  was  hard  to  say  Avhich  was  most  firm." 

Almost  the  first  Northern  men  whom  the  slaveholder  has 
learned  to  respect ! 

The  testimony  of  Mr.  Vallandingham,  though  less  valuable, 
is  of  the  same  purport,  that  "  it  is  vain  to  underrate  either  the 
man  or  his  conspiracy.  .  .  .  He  is  the  farthest  possible 
remove  from  the  ordinary  ruffian,  fanatic,  or  madman." 

"  All  is  quiet  at  Harper's  Ferry,"  say  the  journals.  What 
is  the  character  of  that  calm  which  follows  when  the  law  and 
the  slaveholder  prevail  ?  I  regard  this  event  as  a  touchstone 
designed  to  bring  out,  with  glaring  distinctness,  the  character 
of  this  government.  We  needed  to  b'.  thus  assisted  to  see  it 
by  the  light  of  history'.  It  needed  +o  see  itself.  When  a 
government  puts  forth  its  strength  on  the  side  of  injustice,  as 
ours  to  maintain  Slavery  and  kill  the  liberators  of  the  slave, 
it  reveals  itself  a  merely  brute  force,  or  worse,  a  demonia- 
cal force.  It  is  the  head  of  the  Plug  Uglies.  It  is  more 
manifest  than  ever  that  tyranny  rules.  I  see  this  govern- 
ment to  be  eflTectually  allied  with  France  and  Austria  in 
oppressing  mankind.    There  sits  a  tyrant  holding  fettered 


34 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


four  millions  of  slaves ;  here  comes  their  heroic  liberator. 
This  most  hypocritical  and  diabolical  government  looks  up 
from  its  seat  on  the  gasping  four  millions,  and  inquires  with 
an  assumption  of  innocence,  "  "What  do  you  assault  me  for  ? 
Am  I  not  an  honest  man  ?  Cease  agitation  on  this  subject,  or 
I  will  make  a  slave  of  you,  too,  or  else  hang  you." 

We  talk  about  a  representative  government ;  but  what  a 
monster  of  a  government  is  that  where  the  noblest  faculties 
of  the  mind,  and  the  tvhole  heart,  are  not  represented.  A 
semi-human  tiger  or  ox,  stalking  over  the  earth,  with  its  heart 
taken  out  and  the  top  of  its  brain  shot  away.  Heroes  have 
fought  well  on  their  stumps  when  their  legs  were  shot  off,  but 
I  never  heard  of  any  good  clone  by  such  a  government  as 
that. 

The  only  government  that  I  recognize,  —  and  it  matters 
not  how  few  are  at  the  head  of  it,  or  how  small  its  army, — 
is  that  power  that  establishes  justice  in  the  land,  never  that 
which  establishes  injustice.  What  shall  we  think  of  a  govern- 
ment to  which  all  the  truly  brave  and  just  men  in  the  land  are 
enemies,  standing  between  it  and  those  whom  it  oppresses  ? 
A  government  that  pretends  to  be  Christian  and  crucifies  a 
million  Christs  every  day  ! 

Treason  !  Where  does  such  treason  take  its  rise  ?  I  can- 
not help  thinking  of  you  as  you  deserve,  ye  governments. 
Can  you  dry  up  the  fountains  of  thought  ?  High  treason, 
when  it  is  resistance  to  tyranny  here  below,  has  its  origin  in, 
and  is  first  committed  by  the  power  that  makes  and  forever 
recreates  man.  When  you  have  caught  and  hung  all  these 
human  rebels,  you  have  accomplished  nothing  but  your  own 
guilt,  for  you  have  not  struck  at  the  fountain  head.  You  pre- 
sume to  contend  wiih  a  foe  against  whom  West  Point  cadets 
and  rifled  cannon  point  not.  Can  all  the  art  of  the  cannon- 
founder  tempt  matter  to  turn  against  its  maker?  Is  the  form 
in  which  the  founder  thinks  he  casts  it  more  essential  than  the 
constitution  of  it  and  of  himself  ? 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  35 


The  United  States  have  a  coffle  of  four  millions  of 
slaves.  They  are  determined  to  keep  them  in  this  condition ; 
and  Massachusetts  is  one  of  the  confederated  overseex's  to 
prevent  their  escape.  Such  are  not  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Massachusetts,  but  such  are  they  who  rule  and  are  obeyed 
here.  It  was  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  Virginia,  that  put 
down  this  insurrection  at  Harper's  Ferry.  She  sent  the 
marines  there,  and  she  will  have  to  pay  the  penalty  of  her  sin. 

Suppose  that  there  is  a  society  in  this  State  that  out  of  its 
own  purse  and  magnanimity  saves  all  the  fugitive  slaves  that 
run  to  us,  and  protects  our  colored  fellow-citizens,  and  leaves 
the  other  work  to  the  Government,  so-called.  Is  not  that 
government  fast  losing  its  occupation,  and  becoming  con- 
temptible to  mankind  ?  If  private  men  are  obliged  to  perform 
the  offices  of  government,  to  protect  the  weak  and  dispense 
justice,  tlien  the  government  becomes  only  a  hired  man,  or 
clerk,  to  perform  menial  or  indifferent  services.  Of  course, 
that  is  but  the  shadow  of  a  government  whose  existence  neces- 
sitates a  Vigilant  Committee.  What  should  we  think  of  the 
oriental  Cadi  even,  behind  whom  worked  in  secret  a  vigilant 
committee  ?  But  such  is  the  character  of  our  Northern  States 
generally ;  each  has  its  Vigilant  Committee.  And,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent,  these  crazy  governments  recognize  and  accept 
this  relation.  They  say,  virtually,  "  We'll  be  glad  to  work  for 
you  on  these  terms,  only  don't  make  a  noise  about  it."  And 
thus  the  government,  its  salary  being  insured,  withdraws  into 
the  back  shop,  taking  the  constitution  with  it,  and  bestows 
most  of  its  labor  on  repairing  that.  When  I  hear  it  at  work 
sometimes,  as  I  go  by,  it  reminds  me,  at  best,  of  those  farmers 
who  in  winter  contrive  to  turn  a  penny  by  following  the 
coopering  business.  And  what  kind  of  spirit  is  their  barrel 
made  to  hold  ?  They  speculate  in  stocks,  and  bore  holes  in 
mountains,  but  they  are  not  competent  to  lay  out  even  a 
decent  highway.  The  only  free  road,  the  Underground  Rail- 
road, is  owned  and  managed  by  the  Vigilant  Committee. 


3'^  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


Tliey  have  tunnelled  under  the  whole  breadth  of  the  land. 
Such  a  government  is  losing  its  power  and  respectability  as 
surely  as  water  runs  out  of  a  leaky  vessel,  and  is  held  by  one 
that  can  contain  it. 

I  hear  many  condemn  these  men- because  they  were  so  few. 
When  were  the  good  and  the  brave  ever  in  a  majority? 
Would  you  have  had  him  wait  till  that  time  came  ?  —  till  you 
and  I  came  over  to  him?  The  very  fact  that  he  had  no 
rabble  or  troop  of  hirelings  about  him,  would  alone  distinguish 
him  from  ordinary  heroes.  His  company  was  small  indeed, 
because  few  could  be  found  worthy  to  pass  muster.  Each  one 
who  there  laid  down  his  life  for  the  jioor  and  oppressed  was 
a  picked  man,  culled  out  of  many  thousands,  if  not  millions ; 
apparently  a  man  of  principle,  of  rai'e  courage  and  devoted 
humanity ;  ready  to  sacrifice  his  life  at  any  moment  for  the 
benefit  of  his  fellow-man.  It  may  be  doubted  if  there  were 
as  many  more  their  equals  in  these  respects  in  all  the  coun- 
try—  I  speak  of  his  followers  only  —  for  tiieir  leader,  no 
doubt,  scoured  the  land  far  and  wide,  seeking  to  swell  his 
troop.  These  alone  were  ready  to  step  between  the  oppressor 
and  the  oppressed.  Surely  they  were  the  very  best  men 
you  could  select  to  be  hung.  That  was  the  greatest  compli- 
ment which  this  country  could  pay  them.  They  were  ripe  for 
lier  gallows.  She  has  tried  a  long  time,  she  has  hung  a  good 
many,  but  never  found  the  right  one  before. 

When  I  think  of  him,  and  his  six  sons,  and  his  son-in-law, — 
not  to  enumerate  the  others,  —  enlisted  for  this  fight,  p  'oceed- 
ing  coolly,  reverently,  humanely  to  work,  for  montlis,  if  not 
years,  sleeping  and  waking  upon  it,  summering  and  wintering 
the  the  Jght,  without  expcjcting  any  reward  but  a'  good  con- 
science, while  almost  all  America  stood  ranked  on  the  other 
side,  I  say  again,  that  it  aifects  me  as  a  sublime  spectacle. 
If  he  had  had  any  journal  advocating  "//is  cause"  any  organ, 
as  the  phrase  is,  monotonously  and  wearisomely  playing  the 
same  old  tune,  and  then  passing  round  the  hat,  it  would  have 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  37 


been  fatal  to  his  efficiency.  If  he  had  acted  in  any  way  so  as 
to  be  let  alone  by  the  government,  he  might  have  been  sus- 
spected.  It  was  the  fact  that  the  tyrant  must  give  place  to 
him,  or  he  to  the  tyrant,  that  distinguished  him  from  all  the 
reformers  of  the  day  that  I  know. 

It  was  his  peculiar  doctrine  that  a  man  has  a-  perfect  right 
to  interfere  by  force  witli  the  slaveholder,  in  order  to  rescue 
the  slave.  1  agree  with  him.  They  who  are  continually 
shocked  by  slavery  have  some  right  to  be  shocked  by  the 
violent  death  of  the  slaveholder,  but  no  olher^!.  Such  will  be 
more  shocked  by  his  life  than  by  his  death.  I  shall  not  be 
forward  to  think  him  mistaken  in  his  method  who  quickest 
succeeds  to  liberate  the  slave.  I  speak  for  the  slave  when  I 
say,  that  I  prefer  the  philanthi'opy  of  Captain  Brown  to  that 
philanthropy  which  neither  shoots  me  nor  liberates  me.  At 
any  rate,  I  do  not  think  it  is  quite  sane  for  one  to  spend  his 
whole  life  in  talking  or  writing  about  this  matter,  unless  he  is 
continuously  inspired,  and  I  have  not  done  so.  A  man  may 
have  other  affairs  to  attend  to.  I  do  not  wish  to  kill  nor  to 
be  killed,  but  I  can  foresee  circumstances  in  which  both  these 
things  would  be  by  me  unavoidable.  We  preserve  the  so- 
called  peace  of  our  community  by  deeds  of  petty  violence 
every  day.  Look  at  the  policeman's  billy  and  handcuffs ! 
Look  at  the  jail !  Look  at  (he  gallows !  Look  at  the  chap- 
lain of  the  regiment !  AVe  -are  hoping  only  to  live  safely  on 
the  outskirts  of  this  provisional  army.  So  we  defend  our- 
selves and  our  hen-roo-ts,  and  maintain  slaveiy.  I  know  that 
the  mass  of  my  countrymen  think  that  the  only  rigliteous  use 
that  can  be. made  of  Sliarpe's  rifles  and  revolvers  is  to  fight 
duels  with  them,  when  we  are  insulted  by  other  nations,  or  to 
hunt  Indians,  or  shoot  fugitive  slaves  with  them,  or  the  like.  I 
tliink  that  for  once  the  Sharpe's  rifles  and  the  revolvers  were 
cm])loyed  in  a  righteous  cause.  The  tools  were  in  the  hands 
of  one  who  could  use  ihem. 

The  same  indignation  that  is  said  to  have  cleared  the  tem- 
4 


38  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


pie  once  will  clear  it  again.  The  question  is  not  about  the 
weapon,  but  the  spirit  in  which  you  use  it.  No  man  has 
appeared  in  America,  as  yet,  who  loved  his  fellow-man  so 
well,  and  treated  him  so  tenderly.  He  lived  for  him.  He 
took  up  his  life  and  he  laid  it  down  for  him.  What  sort  of 
violence  is  that  which  is  encouraged,  not  by  soldiers  hut  by 
peaceable  citizens,  not  so  much  by  laymen  as  by  ministers  of 
the  gospel,  not  so  much  by  the  fighting  sects  as  by  the 
Quakers,  and  not  so  much  by  Quaker  men  as  by  Quaker 
women  ? 

Tliis  event  advertises  me  that  there  is  such  a  fact  as 
death  —  the  possibility  of  a  man's  dying.  It  seems  as  if  no 
man  had  ever  died  in  America  before,  for  in  order  to  die  you 
must  first  have  lived.  I  don't  believe  in  the  hearses,  and 
palls,  and  funerals  that  they  have  had.  There  was  no  death 
in  the  case,  because  there  had  been  no  life ;  they  merely  rotted 
or  sloughed  off,  pretty  much  as  they  had  rotted  or  sloughed 
along.  No  temple's  vail  was  rent,  only  a  hole  dug  some- 
where. Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead.  The  best  of  them 
fairly  ran  down  like  a  clock.  Franklin  — "Washington  —  they 
were  let  oflf  without  dying ;  they  were  merely  missing  one  day. 
I  hear  a  good  many  pretend  that  they  are  going  to  die ;  or 
that  they  have  died,  for  aught  that  I  know.  Nonsense  !  I'll 
defy  them  to  do  it.  They  haven't  got  life  enough  in  them. 
They'll  deliquesce  like  fungi,  and  keep  a  hundred  eulogists 
mopping  the  spot  where  they  left  off.  Only  half  a  dozen  or 
so  have  died  sinew  the  world  began.  Do  you  think  that  you 
are  going  to  die,  sir  ?  No !  there's  no  hope  of  you.  You 
haven't  got  your  lesson  yet  You've  got  to  stay  after  school. 
We  make  a  needless  ado  about  capital  punishment  —  taking 
lives,  when  there  is  no  life  to  take.  Memento  mori !  We 
don't  understand  that  sublime  sentence  which  some  worthy 
got  sculptured  on  his  gravestone  once.  We've  interpreted  it 
in  a  grovelling  and  snivelling  sense ;  we've  wholly  forgotten 
how  to  die. 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


39 


But  be  sure  you  do  die,  nevertheless.  Do  your  work,  and 
finish  it.  If  you  know  how  to  begin,  you  will  know  when 
to  end. 

These  men,  in  teaching  us  how  to  die,  have  at  the  same 
time  taught  us  how  to  live.  If  this  man's  acts  and  words  do 
not  create  a  revival,  it  will  be  the  severest  possible  satire  on 
the  acts  and  words  that  do.  It  is  the  best  news  that  Araei*ica 
has  ever  heard.  It  has  already  quickened  the  feeble  pulse  of 
the  North,  and  infused  more  and  more  generous  blood  into  her 
veins  and  heart,  than  any  number  of  years  of  what  is  called 
commercial  and  political  prosperity  could.  How  many  a  man 
Avho  was  lately  contemplating  suicide  has  now  something  to 
live  for ! 

One  writer  says  that  Brown's  peculiar  monomania  made  him 
to  be  "dreaded  by  the  Missourians  as  a  supei-natural  being." 
Sure  enough,  a  hero  in  the  midst  of  us  cowards  is  always  so 
dreaded.  lie  is  just  that  thing.  He  shows  himself  superior 
to  nature.    He  has  a  spark  of  divinity  in  him. 

"Unless  above  himsolf  he  doth  erect  himself, 
How  poor  a  thing  is  man ! " 

Newspaper  editors  avguc  also  tiiat  it  is  a  proof  of  his  in- 
saiiity  that  he  thought  he  was  appointed  to  do  this  work  which 
he  did  —  that  he  did  not  suspect  himself  for  a  moment !  They 
talk  as  if  it  were  impossible  that  a  man  could  be  "  divinely 
appointed  "  in  these  days  to  do  any  M'ork  whatever ;  as  if  vows 
and  religion  were  out  of  date  as  connected  with  any  man's 
daily  work,  —  as  if  the  agent  to  abolish  Slavery  could  only  be 
somebody  appointed  by  the  President,  or  by  some  political 
party.  They  talk  as  if  a  man's  death  were  a  failure,  and  his 
continued  life,  be  it  of  whatever  character,  were  a  success. 

When  I  reflect  to  what  a  cause  this  man  devoted  himself, 
and  how  religiously,  and  then  reflect  to  what  cause  his 
judges  and  all  who  condemn  him  so  angrily  and  fluently 
devote  theinselves,  I  see  that  they  are  as  far  apart  as  the 
heavens  and  earth  are  asunder. 


40  Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


The  amount  of  it  is,  our  "  leading  men  "  are  a  harmless  kind 
of  folk,  and  they  know  well  enough  that  they  were  not  divinely 
appointed,  but  elected  by  the  votes  of  their  party. 

Who  is  it  whose  safety  requires  that  Captain  Brown  be 
hung  ?  Is  it  indispensable  to  any  Northern  man  ?  Is  thei'e 
no  resource  but  to  cast  these  men  also  to  the  Minotaur  ?  If 
you  do  not  wish  it,  say  so  distinctly.  While  these  things  are 
being  done,  beauty  stands  veiled  and  music  is  a  screeching  lie. 
Think  of  him  —  of  his  rare  qualities !  such  a  man  as  it  takes 
ages  to  make,  and  ages  to  understand ;  no  mock  hero,  nor  the 
representative  of  any  party.  A  man  such  as  the  sun  may  not 
rise  upon  again  in  this  benighted  land.  To  whose  making 
went  the  costliest  material,  the  finest  adamant ;  sent  to  be  the 
redeemer  of  those  in  captivity ;  and  the  only  use  to  which  you 
can  put  him  is  to  hang  him  at  the  end  of  a  rope  !  You  who 
pretend  to  care  for  Christ  crucified,  consider  what  you  are 
about  to  do  to  him  who  oiTered  himself  to  be  the  saviour  of 
four  millions  of  men. 

Any  man  knows  when  he  is  justified,  and  all  the  wits  in  the 
world  cannot  enlighten  him  on  that  point.  The  murderer 
always  knows  that  he  is  justly  punished;  but  when  a  govern- 
ment takes  the  life  of  a  man  without  the  consent  of  his  con- 
science, it  is  an  audacious  government,  and  is  taking  r.  step 
towards  its  own  dissolution.  Is  it  not  possible  that  an  indi- 
vidual may  be  right  and  a  government  wrong  ?  Are  laws  to 
be  enforced  simply  because  tiiey  Avere  made  ?  or  declared  by 
any  numbei*  of  men  to  be  good,  if  they  are  not  good  ?  Is  there 
any  necessity  for  a  man's  being  a  tool  to  perform  a  deed  of 
Avhich  his  better  nature  disapproves  ?  Is  it  the  intention  of 
law-makers  that  good  men  shall  be  hung  ever  ?  Are  judges 
to  interpret  tiie  law  according  to  the  letter,  and  not  the  spirit  ? 
What  right  have  you  to  enter  into  a  compact  with  yourself 
tiiat  you  will  do  thus  or  so,  against  the  light  witiiin  you  ?  Is 
it  for  you  to  make  up  your  mind  —  to  form  any  resolution 
whatever  —  and  not  accept  the  convictions  that  are  forced  upon 


Henry  D.  Thoreau.  41 


you,  and  which  ever  pass  your  understanding?  I  do  not  be- 
lieve in  lawyers,  in  that  mode  of  attacking  or  defending  a 
man,  because  you  descend  to  meet  tiie  judge  on  his  own  ground, 
and,  in  cases  of  the  highest  importance,  it  is  of  no  consequence 
whether  a  man  breaks  a  human  law  or  not.  Let  lawyers 
decide  trivial  cases.  Business  men  may  arrange  that  among 
themselves.  If  they  were  the  interpreters  of  the  everlasfing 
laws  which  rightfully  bind  man,  that  would  be  another  thing. 
A  counterfeiting  law-factory,  standing  half  in  a  slave  land  and 
half  in  a  free !  What  kind  of  laws  for  free  men  can  you 
expect  from  that  ? 

I  am  here  to  plead  his  cause  with  you.  I  plead  not  for  his 
life,  but  for  his  character  —  his  immortal  life;  and  so  it  be- 
comes your  cause  wholly,  and  is  not  his  in  the  least.  Some 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago  Christ  was  crucified;  this  morn- 
ing, perchance,  Caj)tain  Brown  was  hung.  These  are  the  two 
ends  of  a  chain  which  is  not  without  its  links.  He  is  not  Old 
Brown  any  longer ;  he  is  an  angel  of  light. 

I  see  now  that  it  was  necessary  that  the  bravest  and 
humanest  man  in  all  the  country  should  be  hung.  Perhsips 
he  saw  it  himself.  I  almost  fear  that  I  may  yet  hear  of  his 
deliverance,  doubting  if  a  prolonged  life,  if  any  life,  can  do  as 
much  good  as  his  death. 

*' Misguided  "  !  "Garrulous"!  "Insane"!  Vindictive"! 
So  ye  write  in  your  easy  chairs,  and  thus  he  wounded  re- 
sponds from  the  floor  of  the  Armory,  clear  as  a  cloudless  sky, 
true  as  the  voice  of  nature  is :  "  No  man  sent  me  here  ;  it  was 
my  own  prompting  and  that  of  my  Miilter.  I  acknowledge  no 
master  in  human  form." 

And  in  what  a  sweet  and  noble  strain  he  proceeds,  address- 
ing his  captors,  who  stand  over  him :  "  I  think,  my  friends, 
you  are  guilty  of  a  great  wrong  against  God  and  humanity, 
and  it  would  be  perfectly  right  for  any  one  to  interfere  with 
you  so  far  as  to  free  those  you  wilfully  and  wickedly  liold  in 
bondage." 

4* 


42 


Henry  D.  Thoreau. 


And  referring  to  his  movement :  "  It  is,  in  my  opinion,  the 
greatest  service  a  man  can  render  to  God." 

"  I  pity  the  poor  in  bondage  that  have  none  to  help  them ; 
that  is  why  I  am  here ;  not  to  gratify  any  personal  animosity, 
revenge,  or  vindictive  spirit.  It  is  my  sympathy  with  the 
oppressed  and  the  wronged,  that  are  as  good  as  you,  and  as 
precious  in  the  sight  of  God." 

You  don't  know  your  testament  M'hen  you  see  it. 

"  I  want  you  to  understand  that  I  respect  the  rights  of  the 
poorest  and  weakest  of  colored  people,  oppressed  by  the  slave 
})()\ver,  ju.st  as  much  as  I  do  those  of  the  most  wealthy  and 
powerful." 

"  I  wish  to  say,  furthermore,  that  you  had  better,  all  you 
people  at  the  South,  prepare  yourselves  for  a  settlement  of 
that  question,  that  must  come  up  for  settlement  sooner  than 
you  are  pri>pared  for  it.  The  sooner  you  are  j)repared  tl  3 
belter.  You  may  dispose  of  me  very  easily.  I  am  nearly 
disposed  of  now  ;  but  this  question  is  still  to  be  settled  —  this 
negro  question,  I  mean ;  the  end  of  tiiat  is  not  yet." 

I  foresee  the  time  when  the  ])ainter  will  paint  tliat  scene, 
no  longer  going  to  Home  for  a  subject ;  the  poet  will  sing  it ; 
the  historian  record  it;  and,  witii  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  it  will  be  the  ornament 
of  some  future  national  gallery,  when  at  least  the  present  form 
of  Slavery  shall  be  no  more  here.  We  shall  then  be  at  lib- 
erty to  weep  for  Captain  Brown.  Then,  and  not  till  then,  we 
will  take  our  revenge. 


II. 


Lecture  by  Wendell  Phillips.* 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  Of  course  I  do  not 
expect  —  speaking  from  this  platform,  and  to  you  —  to 
say  any  thing  on  tlie  vital  question  of  the  hour,  which  you 
have  not  already  heard.  But,  when  a  great  question  divides 
tlie  community,  all  men  are  called  upon  to  vote,  and  I  feel 
to-night  that  I  am  simply  giving  my  vote.  I  am  only  saying 
"ditto"  to  wliat  you  hear  from  this  platform  day  after  day. 
And  I  M'ould  willingly  have  avoided,  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
even  at  this  last  moment,  borrowing  this  hour  from  you.  I 
tried  to  do  better  by  you.  Like  the  Irishman  in  the  story,  I 
offered  to  hold  the  hat  of  Hon.  Thomas  Corwin,  of  Ohio, 
(enthufiastic  applause,)  if  he  would  only  make  a  speech,  and, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  he  declines,  most  unaccoustably,  this  gen- 
erous offer.  (Laughter.)  So  I  must  fulfil  ray  appointment, 
and  deliver  my  lecture  myself. 

"  The  Lesson  of  the  Hour  ? "  I  think  the  lesson  of  the 
hour  is  insurrection.  (Sensation.)  Insurrection  of  thougiit 
always  precedes  the  insurrection  of  arms.  The  last  twenty 
years  have  been  an  insurrection  of  thought..  We  seem  to  be 
entering  on  a  new  phase  of  this  great  American  struggle.  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  have  never  accepted,  as  Americans,  we 
have  never  accepted  our  own  civilization.    We  have  held 

*  Kiiiitlt'd  "Tlip  Lesson  of  Iho  Hour,"  delivered  at  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  Tuesday 
I'TCiiiiig,  November  1. 1809. 

(43) 


44 


Wendell  Phillips. 


back  from  the  inference  which  we  ought  to  have  drawn  from 
the  admitted  principles  which  underlie  our  life.  We  have  all 
the  timidity  of  the  old  world,  when  we  think  of  the  people ; 
we  shrink  back,  trying  to  save  ourselves  from  the  inevitable 
might  of  the  thoughts  of  the  millions.  The  idea  on  the  other 
side  of  the  water  seems  to  be,  that  man  is  created  to  be  taken 
care  of  by  somebody  else.  God  did  not  leave  him  fit  to  go 
alone  ;  he  is  in  everlasting  pupilage  to  the  wealthy  and  the 
educated.  The  religious  or  the  comfortable  classes  are  an 
ever-present  probate  court  to  take  care  of  him.  The  Old 
"World,  therefore,  has  always  distrusted  the  average  con- 
science —  the  common  sense  of  the  millions. 

It  seems  to  me  the  idea  of  our  civilization,  underlying  all 
American  life,  is,  that  men  do  not  need  any  guardian.  We 
need  no  safeguard.  Not  only  the  inevitable,  but  the  best, 
power  this  side  of  the  ocean,  is  the  unfettered  average  com- 
mon sense  of  the  masses.  Institutions,  as  we  are  accustomed 
to  call  them,  are  but  pasteboard,  and  intended  to  be  against 
the  thought  of  the  street.  Statutes  are  mere  milestones,  tell- 
ing how  far  yesterday's  thought  had  travelled ;  and  the  talk 
of  the  sidewalk  to-day  is  the  law  of  the  land.  You  may 
regret  this  ;  but  the  fact  stands  ;  and  if  our  fathers  foresaw 
the  full  effect  of  their  principles,  they  must  have  planned  and 
expected  it.  With  us,  Law  is  nothing  unless  close  behind  it 
stands  a  warm  living  public  opinion.  Let  that  die  or  grow 
indifferent,  and  statutes  are  waste  paper  —  lack  all  executive 
force.  You  may  frame  them  strong  as  language  can  make, 
but  once  change  public  feeling,  and  through  them  or  over 
them  rides  the  real  wish  of  the  people.  The  good  sense  and 
conscience  of  the  masses  are  our  only  title-deeds  and  police 
force.  The  Temperance  cause,  the  Anti-Slavery  movement, 
and  your  Barnburner  party  prove  this.  You  may  sigh  for 
a  strong  government,  anchored  in  the  convictions  of  past  cen- 
turies, and  able  to  protect  the  minority  against  the  majority  ; 
able  to  defy  the  ignorance,  the  mistake,  or  the  passion,  as  well 


Wendell  Phillips. 


45 


as  the  high  purpose,  of  the  present  hour.  You  may  prefer 
the  unchanging  terra  firma  of  despotism ;  but  sttU  the  fact 
remains,  that  we  are  launched  on  the  ocean  of  an  unchained 
democracy,  with  no  safety  but  in  those  laws  of  gravity  that 
bind  the  ocean  in  its  bed — the  instinctive  love  of  right  in  the 
popular  heart — the  divine  sheet-anchor,  that  the  race  gravi- 
tates towards  right,  and  that  the  right  is  always  safe  and  best. 

Somewhat  briefly  stated,  such  is  the  idea  of  American  civil- 
ization ;  uncompromising  faith  —  in  the  average  selfishness, 
if  you  choose  —  of  all  classes,  neutralizing  each  other,  and 
tending  towards  that  fair  play  that  Saxons  love.  But  it  seems 
to  me  that,  on  all  questions,  we  dread  thought ;  we  shrink 
behind  something  ;  we  acknowledge  ourselves  unequal  to  the 
sublime  faith  of  our  fathers ;  and  the  exhibition  of  the  last 
twenty  years  and  of  the  present  state  of  public  affairs  is,  that 
Americans  dread  to  look  their  real  position  in  the  face. 

They  say  in  Ireland  that  every  Irishman  thinks  that  he 
was  born  sixty  days  too  late,  (laughter,)  and  the  world  owes 
him  sixty  days.  The  consequence  is,  when  a  trader  says 
such  a  thing  is  so  much  for  cash,  the  Irishman  thinks  cash 
means  to  him  a  bill  of  sixty  days.  (Laughter.)  So  it  is 
with  Americans.  They  have  no  idea  of  absolute  right.  They 
were  born  since  1787,  and  absolute  right  means  the  truth 
diluted  by  a  strong  decoction  of  the  Constitution  of  '89.  They 
breathe  that  atmosphere  ;  they  do  not  want  to  sail  outside  of 
it ;  they  do  not  attempt  to  reason  outside  of  it.  Poisoned  with 
printer's  ink,  or  choked  with  cofton  dust,  they  stare  at  abso- 
lute right,  as  the  dream  of  madmen.  For  the  last  twenty 
years,  there  has  been  going  on,  more  or  less  heeded  and  un- 
derstood in  various  States,  an  insurrection  of  ideas  against  the 
limited,  cribbed,  cabined,  isolated  American  civilization,  inter- 
fering to  restore  absolute  right.  If  you  said  to  an  American, 
for  instance,  any  thing  in  regard  to  temperance,  slavery,* or 
any  thing  else,  in  the  course  of  the  last  twenty  years  —  any 
thing  about  a  principle,  he  ran  back  instantly  to  the  safety  of 


46  Wendell  Phillips. 


such  a  principle,  to  the  possibility  of  its  existing  with  a  partic- 
ular sect,  with  a  church,  with  a  party,  with  a  constitution,  with 
a  law.  He  had  not  yet  raised  himself  to  the  level  of  daring 
to  trust  justice,  which  is  the  preliminary  consideration  to 
trusting  the  people  ;  for  whether  native  depravity  be  true  or 
not,  it  is  a  truth,  attested  by  all  history,  that  the  race  gravi- 
tates towards  justice,  and  that  making  fair  allowance  for  dif- 
ferences of  opinion,  there  is  an  inherent,  essential  tendency  to 
the  great  English  principle  of  fair  play  at  the  bottom  of  our 
natures^  (Loud  applause.)  The  Emperor  Nicholas,  it  is 
said,  ordered  his  engineers  to  lay  down  for  him  a  railway 
from  St.  Petersburg  to  Moscow,  and  presently  the  engineers 
brought  him  a  large  piece  of  card-paper,  on  which  was  laid 
down,  like  a  snake,  the  designed  path  for  the  iron  locomotive 
between  the  two  capitals.  "What's  that?"  said  Nicholas. 
"  That's  the  best  road,"  was  the  reply.  *'  What  do  you  make 
it  crooked  for  ? "  "  Why,  we  turn  this  way  to  touch  this 
great  city,  and  to  the  left  to  reach  that  immense  mass  of 
people,  and  to  the  right  again  to  suit  the  business  of  that 
distr'ct."  "  Yes."  The  emperor  turned  the  card  over,  made 
a  new  dot  for  Moscow,  and  another  for  St.  Petersburg,  took  a 
ruler,  made  a  sti'aight  line,  and  said,  "  Build  me  that  road." 
(Laughter.) 

"  But  what  will  become  of  this  depot  of  trade  ?  —  of  that 
town ?  "  "I  don't  know ;  they  must  look  out  for  themselves." 
(Cheers.)  And  omnipotent  democracy  says  of  Slavery,  or  of 
a  church,  "  This  is  justice,  and  that  is  iniquity  ;  the  track  of 
God's  thunderbolt  is  a  straight  line  from  one  to  the  other,  and 
the  Church  or  Slate  that  cannot  stand  it  must  get  out  of  the 
way.  (Cheers.)  Now  our  object  for  twenty  years  has  been 
to  educate  the  mass  of  the  American  people  up  to  that  level 
of  moral  ■  life,  which  shall  recognize  that  free  speech  carried 
to  this  extent  is  God's  normal  school,  educating  the  American 
mind,  throwing  upon  it  the  grave  responsibility  of  deciding  a 
great  question,  and  by  means  of  that  responsibility,  lilting 


Wendell  Phillips.  47 

it  to  a  higher  level  of  intellectual  and  moral  life.  Eespon- 
sibility  educates,  and  politics  is  but  another  name  for  God's 
way  of  teaching  the  masses  ethics,  under  the  responsibility  of 
great  present  interest.  To  educate  man  is  God's  ultimate 
end  and  purpose  in  all  creation.  Trust  the  people  with  the 
gravest  questions,  and  in  the  long  run  you  educate  the  race ; 
while,  in  the  process,  you  secure  not  perfect,  but  the  best  pos- 
sible, institutions.  Now  scholarship  stands  on  one  side,  and, 
like  your  Brooklyn  Eagle,  says,  "  This  is  madness  ! "  Well, 
poor  man,  he  thinks  so  !  (Laughter.)  The  very  difficulty 
of  the  whole  matter  is,  that  he  does  think  so,  and  this  normal 
school  that  we  open  is  for  him.  His  seat  is  on  the  lowest  end 
of  the  lowest  hench.  (Laughter  and  applause.)  But  he  only 
represents  that  very  chronic  distrust  which  pervades  all  that 
class,  specially  the  timid,  educated  mind  of  these  Northern 
States.  Anacharsis  went  into  the  forum  at  Athens,  and  heard 
a  case  argued  by  the  great  minds  of  the  day,  and  saw  the 
vote.  He  walked  out  into  the  streets,  and  somebody  said  to 
him,  "What  think  you  of  Athenian  liberty?"  «I  think," 
said  he,  "  wise  men  argue  causes,  and  fools  decide  them." 
Just  M'hat  the  timid  scholar  two  thousand  years  ago  said  in 
the  streets  of  Athens,  that  which  calls  itself  the  scholarship 
of  the  United  States,  says  to-day  of  popular  agitation,  that  it 
lets  wise  men  argue  questions,  and  fools  decide  them.  But 
that  unruly  Athens,  where  fools  decided  the  gi-avest  ques- 
tions of  polity,  and  right,  and  wrong,  where  it  was  not  safe  to 
be  just,  and  wliero  property,  which  you  had  garnered  up  by 
the  thrift  and  industry  of  to-day,  might  be  wrung  from  you 
by  the  prejudices  of  the  mob  to-morrow ;  that  very  Athens 
probably  secured  the  greatest  human  happiness  and  noble- 
ness of  its  era,  invented  art,  and  sounded  for  us  the  depths 
of  philosophy ;  God  lent  to  it  the  noblest  intellects,  and  it 
flashes  to-day  the  torch  that  gilds  yet  the  mountain  peaks  of 
the  old  world ;  while  Egypt,  the  hunker  conservative  of  anti- 
quity, where  nobody  dared  to  differ  from  the  priest,  or  to  be 


48 


Wendell  Phillips. 


wiser  than  his  grandfather ;  where  men  pretended  to  be  alive, 
though  swaddled  in  the  grave  clothes  of  creed  and  custom  as 
close  as  their  mummies  in  linen,  is  hid  in  the  tomb  it  inhab- 
ited ;  and  the  intellect  which  Athens  has  created  for  us  digs 
to-day  those  ashes  to  find  out  what  hunkerism  knew  and  did. 
(Cheers.)  Now  my  idea  of  American  civilization  is,  that  it 
is  a  second  part,  a  repetition  of  that  same  sublime  confidence 
in  the  public  conscience  and  the  public  thought  that  made  the 
groundwork  of  Grecian  Democracy. 

We  have  been  carrying  on  this  insurrection  of  thought  for 
thirty  years.  There  have  been  various  evidences  of  growth 
in  education  ;  I  will  tell  you  of  one.  The  first  evidence  that 
a  sinner,  convicted  of  sin,  and  too  blind  or  too  lazy  to  reform, 
the  first  evidence  he  gives  that  his  nature  has  been  touched, 
is,  that  he  becomes  a  hypocrite ;  he  has  the  grace  to  pretend 
to  be  something.  Now,  the  first  evidence  that  the  American 
people  gave  of  that  commencing  grace  of  hypocrisy  was  this  : 
in  1831,  when  we  commenced  the  Anti-Slavery  agitation,  the 
papers  talked  about  Slavery,  Bondage,  American  Slavery, 
boldly,  frankly,  and  bluntly.  In  a  few  years  it  sounded 
hard ;  it  had  a  grating  effect ;  the  toughest  throat  of  the 
hardest  Democrat  felt  it  as  it  came  out.  So  they  spoke  of 
the  "  patriarchal  institution,"  (laughter,)  then  of  the  "  domes- 
tic institution,"  (continued  laughter,)  and  then  of  the  "  pecu- 
liar institution,"  (laughter,)  and  in  a  year  or  two  it  got  beyond 
that.  Mississippi  published  a  report  from  her  Senate,  in  which 
she  went  a  stride  further,  and  described  it  as  "  economic  sub- 
ordination." (Renewed  laughter.)  A  Southern  Methodist 
bishop  was  taken  to  task  for  holding  slaves  in  reality,  but 
his  Methodist  brethren  were  not  courageous  enough  to  say 
"  slaves  "  right  out  in  meeting,  and  so  they  advised  the  bishop 
to  get  rid  of  his  "  impediment,"  (loud  laughter  ;)  and  the  late 
Mr.  Rufus  Clioate,  in  tlie  last  Democratic  canvass  in  my  own 
State,  undertaking  and  obliged  to  refer  to  the  institutions  of  ' 
the  South,  and  unwilling  that  his  old  New  England  lii's,  that 


Wendell  Phillips. 


49 


had  spoken  so  many  glorious  free  truths,  should  foul  their  last 
days  with  the  hated  word,  phrased  it  "  a  different  type  of  in- 
dustry." Now,  hypocrisy  —  why,  "  it  is  the  homage  that  Vice 
renders  to  Virtue."  When  men  begin  to  weary  of  capital 
punishment,  they  banish  the  gallows  inside  the  jail-yard,  and 
let  nobody  see  it  without  a  special  card  of  invitation  from 
the  sheriff.  And  so  they  have  banished  Slavery  into  pet 
phrases  and  fancy  flash-words.  If,  one  hundred  years  hence, 
you  should  dig  our  Egyptian  Hunkerism  up  from  the  grave 
into  which  it  is  rapidly  sinking,  we  should  need  a  commen- 
tator of  the  true  German  blood  to  find  out  what  all  these 
queer,  odd,  peculiar,  imaginative  paraphrases  mean  in  this 
middle  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  This  is  one  evidence  of 
progress. 

I  believe  in  moral  suasion.  The  age  of  bullets  is  over. 
The  age  of  ideas  is  come.  I  think  that  is  the  rule  of  our 
age.  The  old  Hindoo  dreamed,  you  know,  that  he  saw  the 
human  race  led  out  to  its  varied  fortune.  First,  he  saw  men 
bitted  and  curbed,  and  the  reins  went  back  to  an  iron  hand. 
But  his  dream  changed  on  and  on,  until  at  last  he  saw  men 
led  by  reins  that  came  from  the  brain,  and  went  back  into  an 
unseen  hand.  It  was  the  type  of  governments ;  the  first 
despotism,  palpable,  iron  j  and  the  last  our  government,  a 
government  of  brains,  a  government  of  ideas.  I  believe  in 
it  —  in  public  opinion. 

Yet,  let  me  say,  in  passing,  I  think  you  can  make  a  better 
use  of  iron  than  forging  it  into  chains.  If  you  must  have  the 
inetai,  put  it  into  Sharpe's  rifles.  It  is  a  great  deal  better 
used  that  way  than  in  fettei's ;  types  are  better  than  bullets, 
but  bullets  a  thousand  times  rather  than  a  clumsy  statue  of  a 
mock  great  man,  for  hypocrites  to  kneel  down  and  worship  in 
a  State-house  yard.  (Loud  and  renewed  cheers,  and  great 
hissing.)  I  am  so  unused  to  hisses  lately,  that  I  have  forgot- 
ten what  I  had  to  say.  (Laughter  and  hisses.)  I  only  kijiow 
I  meant  what  I  did  say» 
§ 


50  Wendell  Phillips. 


My  idea  is,  public  opinion,  literature,  education,  as  govern- 
ing elements. 

But  some  men  seem  to  think  that  our  institutions  are  neces- 
sai'ily  safe,  because  we  have  free  schools  and  cheap  books,  and 
a  public  opinion  that  controls.  But  that  is  no  evidence  of 
safety.  India  and  China  had  schools  for  fifteen  hundred 
years.  And  books,  it  is  said,  •were  once  as  cheap  in  Central 
and  Northern  Asia,  as  they  are  in  New  York.  But  they 
have  not  secured  liberty,  nor  a  controlling  pubhc  opinion  to 
either  nation.  Spain  for  three  centuries  had  municipalities 
and  town  governments,  as  independent  and  self-supporting, 
and  as  representative  of  thought,  as  New  England  or  New 
York  has.  But  that  did  not  save  Spain.  De  Tocqueville 
says  that  fifty  years  before  the  great  revolution,  public  opin- 
ion was  as  omnipotent  in  France  as  it  is  to-day,  but  it  did  not 
make  France  free.  You  cannot  save  men  by  machinery. 
"What  India,  and  France,  and  Spain  wanted,  was  live  men, 
and  that"  is  what  we  want  to-day;  men  who  are  willing  to 
look  their  own  destiny,  and  their  own  responsibilities,  in  the 
face.  "  Grant  me  to  see,  and  Ajax  asks  no  more,"  was  the 
prayer  the  great  poet  put  into  the  lips  of  his  hero  in  the 
darkness  that  overspread  the  Grecian  camp.  All  we  want 
of  American  citizens  is  the  opening  of  their  own  eyes,  and 
seeing  things  as  they  are.  The  intelligent,  thoughtful,  and 
determined  gaze  of  twenty  millions  of  Christian  people,  there 
is  nothing  —  no  institution  wicked  and  powerf  ul  enough  to  be 
capable  of  standing  against  it.  In  Keats's  beautiful  poem  of 
"  Lamia,"  a  young  man  had  been  led  captive  by  a  phantom 
girl,  and  was  the  slave  of  her  beauty,  until  the  old  teacher 
came  in  and  fixed  his  thoughtful  eye  upon  the  figure,  and  it 
vanished. 

You  see  the  great  commonwealth  of  Virginia  fitly  repre- 
sented by  a  pyramid  standing  upon  its  apex.  A  Connecticut 
born  man  entered  at  one  corner  of  her  dominions,  and  fixed 
his  cold  gray  eye  upon  the  government  of  Virginia,  and  it 


Wendell  Phillips. 


almost  vanished  in  his  very  gaze.  For  it  seems  that  Virginia, 
for  a  week,  asked  leave  "  to  be  "  of  John  Brown  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  (Cheers  and  applause.)  Connecticut  has  sent  out 
many  a  schoolmaster  to  the  other  thirty  States ;  but  never  be- 
fore so  grand  a  teacher  as  that  Litchfield  born  schoolmaster  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  writing  as  it  were  upon  the  Natural  Bridge 
in  the  face  of  nations  his  simple  copy :  "  Kesistance  to  tyrants 
is  obedience  to  God."    (Loud  cheers.) 

I  said  that  the  lesson  of  the  hour  was  insurrection.  I  ought 
not  to  apply  that  Avord  to  John  Brown  of  Osawatoraie,  for 
there  was  no  insurrection  in  his  case.  It  is  a  great  mistake 
to  call  him  an  insurgent.  This  principle  that  I  have  endeav- 
ored so  briefly  to  open  to  you,  of  absolute  right  and  wrong, 
states  what  ?  Just  this  :  "  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  ! " 
There  is  no  such  thing.  Lawless,  brutal  force  is  no  basis 
of  a  government,  in  the  true  sense  of  that  word.  Quce  est 
enim  civitas?  asks  Cicero.  Omnis  ne  conventus  etiamfero' 
rum  et  immanium  ?  Omnis  ne  etiam  fugiiivorum  ac  latronum 
congregata  unum  in  locum  jmdtitudo  f  certe  negabis.  No 
civil  society,  no  government,  can  exist  except  on  the  basis  of 
the  willing  submission  of  all  its  citizens,  and  by  the  per- 
formance of  the  duty  of  rendering  equal  justice  between  man 
and  man. 

"Whatever  calls  itself  a  government,  and  refuses  that  duty, 
or  has  not  that  assent,  is  no  government.  It  is  only  a  pirate 
ship.  Virginia,  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia !  She  is  only 
a  chronic  insurrection.  I  mean  exactly  what  I  say.  I  am 
weighing  my  words  now.  She  is  a  pirate  ship,  and  John 
Brown  sails  the  sea  a  Lord  High  Admiral  of  the  Almighty, 
with  his  commission  to  sink  every  pirate  he  meets  on  God's 
ocean  of  the  nineteenth  century.  (Cheers  and  applause.)  I 
mean  literally  and  exactly  what  I  say.  In  God's  world  there 
are  no  majorities,  no  minorities ;  one,  on  God's  side,  is  a 
majority.  You  have  often  heard  here,  doubtless,  and  I  need 
not  tell  you  the  ground  of  morals.    The  rights  of  that  on? 


52 


Wendell  Phillips. 


man  are  as  sacred  as  those  of  the  miscalled  commomsrealth 
of  Virginia.  Virginia  is  only  another  Algiers.  The  barba- 
rous horde  who  gag  each  other,  imprison  women  for  teaching 
children  to  read,  prohibit  the  Bible,  sell  men  on  the  auction- 
blocks,  abolish  marriage,  condemn  half  their  women  to  pros- 
titution, and  devote  themselves  to  the  breeding  of  human 
beings  for  sale,  is  only  a  larger  and  blacker  Algiers.  The 
only  prayer  of  a  true  man  for  such  is,  "  Gracious  Heaven ! 
unless  they  repent,  send  soon  their  Exmouth  and  Decatur." 
John  Brown  has  twice  as  much  right  to  hang  Gov.  Wise,  as 
Gov.  Wise  has  to  hang  him.  (Cheers  and  hisses.)  You  see 
I  am  talking  of  that  absolute  essence  of  things  that  lives  in  the 
sight  of  the  Eternal  and  the  Infinite  ;  not  as  men  judge  it  in 
the  rotten  morals  of  the  nineteenth  century,  among  a  herd  of 
States  that  calls  itself  an  empire,  because  it  raises  cotton  and 
sells  slaves.  What  I  say  is  this :  Harper's  Ferry  was  the 
only  government  in  that  vicinity.  Look  at  the  trial.  Virginia, 
true  to  herself,  has  shown  exactly  the  same  haste  that  the 
pirate  does  when  he  tries  a  man  on  deck,  and  runs  him  up  to 
the  yard-arm.  Unconsciously  she  is  consistent.  Now,  you 
do  not  think  this  to-day,  some  of  you,  pei'haps.  But  I  tell 
you  what  absolute  History  shall  judge  of  these  forms  and 
phantoms  of  ours.  John  Brown  began  his  Ijfe,  his  public  life, 
in  Kansas.  The  South  planted  that  seed  ;  it  reaps  the  first 
fruit  now.  Twelve  years  ago  the  great  men  in  Wasliington, 
the  Websters  and  the  Clays,  planted  the  Mexican  war ;  and 
they  reaped  their  ap|)ropriate  fruit  in  Gen.  Taylor  and  Gen. 
Pierce  pushing  them  from  their  statesmen's  stools.  The 
South  planted  the  seeds  of  violence  in  Kansas,  and  taught 
peaceful  Northern  men  familiarity  with  the  bowie-knife  and 
revolver.  They  planted  nine  hundred  and  ninety -nine  seeds, 
and  this  is  the  first  one  that  has  flowered ;  this  is  the  first 
drop  of  the  coming  shower.  People  do  me  the  honor  to  say, 
in  some  of  the  western  papers,  that  this  is  traceable  to  some 
teachings  of  mine.   It  is  too  much  honor  to  such  as  me. 


Wendell  Phillips. 


53 


(xladly,  if  it  were  not  fulsome  vanity,  would  I  clutch  this 
laurel  of  having  any  share  in  the  great  resolute  daring  of 
that  man  who  flung  himself  against  an  empire  in  behalf  of 
justice  and  liberty.  They  were  not  the  bravest  men  who 
fought  at  Saratoga  and  Yorktown,  in  the  war  of  1776.  O, 
no !  it  was  rather  those  who  flung  themselves,  at  Lexington, 
few  and  feeble,  against  the  embattled  ranks  of  an  empire,  till 
then  thought  irresistible.  Elderly  men,  in  powdered  wigs  and 
red  velvet,  smoothed  their  ruflles,  and  cried,  "  JMadmen ! " 
Full-fed  custom-house  clerks  said,  "A  pistol  shot  against 
Gibraltar ! "  But  Captain  Ingraham,  under  the  stars  and 
stripes,  dictating  terms  to  the  fleet  of  tlie  Ca;sars,  was  only 
the  echo  of  that  Lexington  gun.  Harper's  Ferry  is  the  Lex- 
ington of  to-day.  Up  to  this  moment,  Brown's  life  has  been 
one  unmixed  success.  Prudence,  skill,  courage,  thrift,  knowl- 
edge of  his  time,  knowledge  of  his  opponents,  undi  unted  dar- 
ing —  he  had  all  these.  He  was  the  man  who  could  leave 
Kansas,  and  go  into  Missouri,  and  take  eleven  men  and  give 
them  to  liberty,  and  bring  them  off  on  the  horses  which  he 
carried  with  him,  and  two  which  he  took  as  tribute  from  their 
masters  in  order  to  facilitate  escape.  Then,  when  he  had 
passed  his  human  proteges  from  the  vultui'e  of  the  United 
States  to  the  safe  shelter  of  the  English  lion,  this  is  the  brave, 
frank,  and  sublime  truster  in  God's  right  and  absolute  justice, 
that  entered  his  name  in  the  city  of  Cleveland,  "  John  Brown, 
of  Kansas,"  advertised  there  two  horses  for  sale,  and  stood 
in  fi'ont  of  the  auctioneer's  stand,  notifying  all  bidders  of — 
what  some  would  think  —  the  defect  in  the  title.  (Laughter.) 
But  he  added,  with  nonchalance,  when  he  told  the  story, — 
"  They  brought  a  vexy  excellent  price."  (Laughter.)  This 
is  the  man  who,  in  the  face  of  the  nation,  avowing  his  right, 
and  laboring  with  what  strength  he  had  in  behalf  of  the 
wronged,  goes  down  to  Harper's  Ferry  to  follow  up  his  work. 
Well,  men  say  he  failed.  Every  man  has  his  Moscow.  Sup- 
pose he  did  fail,  every  man  meets  his  Waterloo  at  last.  There 


Wendell  Phillips. 


are  two  kinds  of  defeat.  Whether  in  chains  or  in  laurels, 
LiBEUTY  knows  nothing  but  victories.  Soldiers  call  Bunker 
Hill  a  defeat ;  but  Liberty  dates  from  it,  though  Warren  lay 
dead  on  the  field.  Men  say  the  attempt  did  not  succeed. 
No  man  can  command  success.  Whether  it  was  well  planned, 
and  deserved  to  succeed,  we  shall  be  able  to  decide  when 
Brown  is  free  to  tell  us  all  he  knows.  Suppose  he  did  fail, 
in  one  sense,  he  has  done  a  great  deal  still.  Why,  this  is  a 
decent  country  to  live  in  now.  (Laughter  and  cheers.)  Ac- 
tually, in  this  Sodom  of  ours,  twenty-two  men  have  been 
found  ready  to  die  for  an  idea.  God  be  thanked  for  John 
Brown,  that  he  has  discovered  or  created  them.  (Cheers.) 
I  should  feel  some  pride,  if  I  was  in  Europe  now,  in  confess- 
ing that  I  was  an  American.  (Applause.)  We  have  re- 
deemed the  long  infamy  of  sixty  years  of  subservience.  But 
look  back  a  bit.  Is  there  any  thing  new  about  this  ?  Noth- 
ing at  all.  It  is  the  natural  result  of  Anti-slavery  teaching. 
For  one,  I  accept  it ;  I  expected  it.  I  cannot  say  that  I 
prayed  for  it ;  I  cannot  say  that  I  hoped  for  it.  But  at  the 
same  time,  no  sane  man  has  looked  upon  this  matter  for 
twenty  years,  and  supposed  that  we  could  go  through  this 
great  moral  convulsion,  the  great  classes  of  society  crashing 
and  jostling  against  each  other  like  frigates  in  a  storm,  and 
that  there  would  not  come  such  scenes  as  these. 

In  1835  it  was  the  other  way.  Then  it  was  my  bull  that 
gored  your  ox.  Then  ideas  came  in  conilict,  and  men  of  vio- 
lence, men  who  trusted  in  their  own  right  hands,  men  who 
believed  in  bowie-knives  —  such  sacked  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia ;  such  made  New  York  to  be  governed  by  a  mob ;  Bos- 
ton saw  its  mayor  suppliant  and  kneeling  to  the  chief  of  a 
broadcloth  mob  in  broad  daylight.  It  was  all  on  that  side. 
The  natural  result,  the  first  result  of  this  starting  of  ideas,  is 
like  people  who  get  half  awaked,  and  use  the  first  weapons 
that  lie  at  hand.  The  first  show  and  unfolding  of  national 
life,  were  the  mobs  of  1835.    People  said  it  served  us  right 


Wendell  Phillips. 


we  had  no  right  to  the  luxury  of  speaking  our  own  minds  ; 
it  was  too  expensive  ;  these  lavish,  prodigal,  luxurious  per- 
sons walking  about  here,  and  actually  saying  what  they  think. 
Why,  it  was  like  speaking  loud  in  the  midst  of  the  avalanches. 
To  say  "  Liberty "  in  a  loud  tone,  the  Constitution  of  1789 
might  come  down  —  it  would  not  do.  But  now  things  have 
changed.  We  have  been  talking  thirty  years.  Twenty  years 
we  have  talked  eveiy  where,  under  all  circumstances ;  we 
have  been  mobbed  out  of  great  cities,  and  pelted  out  of  little 
ones ;  we  have  been  abused  by  great  men  and  by  little  papers. 
(Laughter  and  applause.)  What  is  the  result  ?  The  tables 
have  been  turned ;  it  is  your  bnll  that  has  gored  my  ox  now. 
And  men  that  still  believe  in  violence,  the  five  points  of  whose 
faith  are  the  fist,  the  bowie-knife,  fire,  poison,  and  the  pistol, 
are  ranged  on  the  side  of  Liberty,  and,  unwilling  to  wait  for 
the  slow  but  sure  steps  of  thought,  lay  on  God's  altar  the  best 
they  have.  You  cannot  expect  to  put  a  real  Puritan  Presby- 
terian, as  John  Brown  is  —  a  regular  Cromwellian  dug  up 
from  two  centuries  —  in  the  midst  of  our  New  England  civil- 
ization, that  dare  not  say  its  soul  is  its  own,  nor  proclaim  that 
it  is  wrong  to  sell  a  man  at  auction,  and  not  have  him  show 
himself  as  he  is.  Put  a  hound  in  the  presence  of  a  deer,  and 
he  springs  at  his  throat  if  he  is  a  true  bloodhound.  Put  a 
Christian  in  the  presence  of  a  sin,  and  he  will  spring  at  its 
throat  if  he  is  a  true  Christian.  Into  an  acid  we  may  throw 
white  matter,  but  unless  it  is  chalk,  it  will  not  produce  agita- 
tion. So,  if  in  a  world  of  sinners  you  were  to  put  American 
Christianity,  it  would  be  calm  as  oil.  But  put  one  Christian, 
like  John  Brown  of  Osawatoraie,  and  he  makes  the  whole 
crystallize  into  right  and  wrong,  and  marshal  themselves  on 
one  side  or  the  other.  God  makes  him  the  text,  and  all  he 
asks  of  our  comparatively  cowardly  lips  is  to  preach  the  ser- 
mon, and  say  to  the  American  people  that,  whether  that  old 
man  succeeded  in  a  worldly  sense  or  not,  he  stood  a  repre- 
sentative of  law,  of  government,  of  right,  of  justice,  of  religion, 


56 


Wcndel!  PhilHpa 


and  they  were  a  mob  of  murderers  that  gathered  about  him, 
and  sought  to  wreak  vengeance  by  taking  his  lite.  The  banks 
of  the  Potomac,  doubly  dear  now  to  History  and  to  Man ! 
The  dust  of  Washington  rests  there ;  and  History  will  see 
forever  on  that  river-side  the  brave  old  man  on  his  pallet, 
whose  dust,  when  God  calls  him  hence,  the  Father  of  his 
country  would  be  proud  to  make  room  for  beside  his  own. 
But  if  Virginia  tyrants  dare  hang  him,  after  this  mockery  of 
a  trial,  it  will  take  two  more  Washingtons  at  least  to  make 
the  name  of  the  State  any  thing  but  abominable  in  time  to 
come.  (Applause  and  hisses.)  Well,  I  say  what  I  really 
think,  (cheers,  and  cries  of  "  good,  good.")  George  Wash- 
ington was  a  great  man.  Yet  I  say  what  I  really  think.  And 
I  know,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  that,  educated  as  you  have  been 
by  the  experience  of  the  last  ten  years  here,  you  would  have 
thought  me  the  silliest  as  well  as  the  most  cowardly  man  in 
the  world,  if  I  should  have  come,  with  my  twenty  years  be- 
hind me,  and  talked  about  any  thing  else  to-night  except  that 
gi'eat  example  which  one  man  has  set  us  on  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac.  You  expected,  of  course,  that  I  should  tell  you  my 
real  opinion  of  it. 

vahie  this  element  that  Brown  has  introduced  into  Amer- 
ican politics.  The  South  is  a  great  power  —  no  cowards  in 
Virginia.  (Laughter.)  It  was  not  cowardice.  (Laughter.) 
Now,  I  try  to  speak  very  plain,  but  you  will  misunderstand 
me.  There  is  no  cowardice  in  Virginia.  The  South  are  not 
cowards.  The  lunatics  ia  the  Gospel  were  not  cowards  when 
they  said,  "  Art  thou  come  to  torment  us  before  the  time  ?  " 
(Laughter.)  They  were  brave  enough,  but  they  saw  afar  oflP. 
They  saw  the  tremendous  power  that  was  entering  into  that 
charmed  circle ;  they  knew  its  inevitable  victory.  Virginia 
did  not  tremble  at  an  old  gray-headed  man  at  Harper's  Fer- 
ry ;  they  trembled  at  a  John  Brown  in  every  man's  own  con- 
science. He  had  been  there  many  years,  and,  like  that  ter- 
rific scene  which  Beckford  has  drawn  for  us  in  his  Hall  of 


Wendell  Phillips. 


57 


Ehlis,  where  the  crowd  runs  around,  each  man  with  an  incur- 
able wound  in  his  bosom,  and  agrees  not  to  speak  of  it ;  so 
the  South  has  been  running  up  and  down  its  political  and 
social  life,  and  every  man  keeps  his  right  hand  pressed  on 
the  secret  and  incurable  sore,  with  an  understood  agreement, 
in  Church  and  State,  that  it  never  shall  be  mentioned,  for 
fear  the  great  ghastly  fabric  shall  come  to  pieces  at  the  talis- 
manic  word.  Brown  uttered  it ;  cried,  "  Slavery  is  sin !  come, 
all  true  men,  help  pull  it  down,"  and  the  whole  machinery 
trembled  to  its  very  base. 

I  value  this  movement  for  another  reason.  Did  you  ever 
see  a  blacksmith  shoe  a  restless  horse  ?  If  you  have,  you 
have  seen  him  take  a  small  cord  and  tie  the  upper  lip.  Ask 
hitn  what  he  does  it  for,  he  will  tell  you  to  give  the  beast 
something  to  think  of.  (Laughter.)  Now,  the  South  has  ex- 
tensive schemes.  She  grasps  with  one  hand  a  Mexico,  and  with 
the  other  she  dictates  terms  to  the  Church,  she  imposes  condi- 
tions on  the  State,  she  buys  up  Webster  with  a  little  or  a 
promise,  and  Everett  with  nothing.  (Gx'eat  laughter  and  ap- 
plause.) John  Brown  has  given  her  something  else  to  think 
of.  He  has  turned  her  attention  inwardly.  He  has  taught 
her  that  there  has  been  created  a  new  element  in  this  North- 
ern mind ;  that  it  is  not  merely  the.  thinker,  that  it  is  not 
merely  the  editor,  that  it  is  not  merely  the  moral  reformer, 
but  the  idea  has  pervaded  all  classes  of  society.  Call  them 
madmen  if  you  will.  Hard  to  tell  who's  mad.  The  world 
says  one  man  is  mad.  John  Brown  said  the  same  of  the 
Governor.  You  remember  the  madman  in  Edinburgh.  A 
friend  asked  him  what  he  was  there  for.  "  Well,"  cried  he, 
"  they  said  at  home  that  I  was  mad ;  and  I  said  I  was  not  j 
but  they  had  the  majority."  (Laughter.)  Just  so  it  is  in 
regard  to  John  Brown.  The  nation  says  he  is  mad.  I  ap- 
peal from  Philip  drunk  to  Philip  sober ;  I  appeal  from  the 
American  people,  drunk  with  cotton,  and  the  New  York  Ob' 
server,  (loud  and  long  laughter,)  to  the  American  people  fifty 


J8 


Wendell  Phillips. 


years  hence,  when  the  light  of  civilization  has  had  more  time 
to  penetrate,  when  self-interest  has  been  rebuked  by  the  world 
rising  and  giving  its  verdict  on  these  great  questions,  when  it 
is  not  a  small  band  of  Abolitionists,  but  the  civilization  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  in  all  its  varied  forms,  interests,  and  ele- 
ments, that  undertakes  to  enter  the  arena,  and  discuss  this  last 
great  reform.  \Yhen  that  day  comes,  what  will  be  thought 
of  these  first  martyrs,  who  teach  us  how  to  live  and  how 
to  die  ? 

Has  the  slave  a  right  to  resist  his  master?  I  will  not 
argue  that  question  to  a  people  hoarse  with  shouting  ever 
since  July  4,  1776,  that  all  men  are  created  e(iual,  that  the 
right  to  liberty  is  inalienable,  and  that  "  resistance  to  tyrants 
is  obedience  to  God."  But  may  he  resist  to  blood  —  with 
rifles  ?  What  need  of  proving  that  to  a  people  who  load 
down  Bunker  Hill  with  granite,  and  crowd  their  public 
squares  with  images  of  Washington  ;  ay,  Avorship  the  sword 
so  blindly  that,  leaving  their  oldest  statesmen  idle,  they  go 
down  to  the  bloodiest  battle  field  in  Mexico  to  drag  out  a 
President  ?  But  may  one  help  the  slave  resist,  as  Brown 
did  ?  Ask  Byron  on  his  death-bed  in  the  marshes  of  Misso- 
longhi.  Ask  the  Hudson  as  its  waters  kiss  your  shore,  what 
answer  they  bring  from  the  grave  of  Kosciusko.  I  liide  the 
Connecticut  Puritan  behind  Lafayette,  bleeding  at  Brandy- 
wine,  in  behalf  of  a  nation  his  riglitful  king  forbade  him  to 
visit. 

But  John  Brown  violated  the  law.  Yes.  On  j'onder  desk 
lie  the  inspired  words  of  men  who  died  violent  deaths  for 
breaking  the  laws  of  Rome.  Why  do  you  listen  to  them  so 
reverently?  Huss  and  Wickliffe  violated  laws,  why  honor 
them  ?  George  Washington,  had  he  been  caught  before  1783, 
would  have  died  on  the  gibbet,  for  breaking  the  laws  of  his 
sovereign.  Yet  I  have  heard  that  man  praised  within  six 
months.  Yes,  you  say,  but  these  men  broke  bad  laws.  Just 
so.    It  is  honorable,  then,  to  break  bad  laws.,  and  such  law- 


Wendell  Phillips. 


S9 


breaking  History  loves  and  God  blesses !  "Who  says,  then, 
that  slave  laws  are  not  ten  thousand  times  worse  than  any 
those  men  resisted  ?  Whatever  argument  excuses  them, 
makes  John  Brown  a  saint. 

Suppose  John  Brown  had  not  staid  at  Harper's  Ferry. 
Suppose  on  that  momentous  Monday  night,  when  the  excited 
imaginations  of  two  thousand  Charlestown  people  had  en- 
larged him  and  his  little  band  into  four  hundred  white  men 
and  two  hundred  blacks,  he  had  vanished,  and  when  the  gal- 
lant troops  arrived  there,  two  thousand  strong,  they  liad  found 
nobody !  The  mountains  would  have  been  peopled  with  ene- 
mies ;  the  Alleghanies  would  have  heaved  with  insurrection  ! 
You  never  would  have  convinced  Virginia  that  all  Pennsyl- 
vania was  not  armed  and  on  the  hills.  Suppose  Massachu- 
setts, free  Massachusetts,  had  not  given  the  world  the  tele- 
graph to  flash  news  like  sunlight  over  half  the  globe.  Then 
Tuesday  would  have  rolled  away,  wliile  slow-spreading 
through  dazed  Virginia  crawled  the  news  of  this  event. 
Meanwhile,  a  hundred  men  having  rallied  to  Brown's  side, 
he  might  have  marched  across  the  quaking  State  to  Richmond 
and  pardoned  Governor  Wise.  Nat  Turner's  success,  in  1831, 
shows  this  would  have  been  possible.  Free  thought,  mother 
of  invention,  not  Virginia,  batfled  Brown.  But  free  thought, 
in  the  long  run,  strangles  tyrants.  Virginia  has  not  slept 
sound  since  Nat  Turner  led  an  insurrection  in  1831,  and  she 
bids  fair  never  to  have  a  nap  now.  (Laughter.)  For  this 
is  not  an  insurrection ;  this  is  the  penetration  of  a  different 
element.  Mark  you,  it  is  not  the  oppressed  race  rising. 
Recollect  history.  There  never  was  a  race  held  in  actual 
chains  that  vindicated  its  own  liberty  but  one.  There  never 
was  a  serf  nor  a  slave  whose  own  sword  cut  off  his  own  chain 
but  one.  Blue-eyed,  light-haired  Anglo-Saxon,  it  was  not  our 
race.  We  were  serfs  for  three  centuries,  and  we  waited  till 
commerce,  and  Christianity,  and  a  different  law,  had  melted 
our  fetters.    We  were  crowded  down  into  a  villanage  which 


6o 


Wendell  Phillips. 


crushed  out  our  manhood  so  thoroughly  that  we  had  not  vigor 
enough  left  to  redeem  ourselves.  Neitlier  France  nor  Spain, 
neither  the  Northern  nor  the  Southern  races  of  Europe  have 
that  bright  spot  on  their  escutcheon,  that  they  put  an  end  to 
their  own  slavery.  Blue-eyed,  haughty,  contemptuous  Anglo- 
Saxons,  it  was  the  black  —  the  only  race  in  the  record  of 
history  that  ever,  after  a  century  of  oppression,  retained  the 
vigor  to  write  the  charter  of  its  emancipation  with  its  own 
hand  in  the  blood  of  the  dominant  race.  Despised,  calum- 
niated, slandered  San  Domingo  is  the  only  instance  in  history 
where  a  race^  with  indestructible  love  of  liberty,  after  bearing 
a  hundred  years  of  oppression,  rose  up  under  their  own  lead- 
er, and  with  their  own  hands  wrested  chains  from  their  own 
limbs.  Wait,  garrulous,  ignorant,  boasting  Saxon,  till  you  have 
done  half  as  much,  before  you  talk  of  the  cowardice  of  the 
black  race ! 

The  slaves  of  our  country  have  not  risen,  but,  as  in  mosc 
other  cases,  redemption  will  come  from  the  interference  of  a 
wiser,  higher,  more  advanced  civilization  on  its  exterior.  It 
is  the  almost  universal  record  of  history,  and  ours  is  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  same  drama.  We  liave  awakened  at  la;^t  the  en- 
thusiasm of  both  classes  —  those  that  act  from  impulse,  and 
those  that  act  from  calculation.  It  is  a  libel  on  the  Yankee 
to  think  that  it  includes  the  whole  race,  when  you  say  that  if 
you  put  a  dollar  on  the  other  side  of  hell,  the  Yankee  will 
spring  for  it  at  any  risk,  (laughter  ;)  for  there  is  an  element 
even  in  the  Yankee  blood  that  obeys  ideas ;  there  :'s  an  im- 
pulsive, enthusiastic  aspiration,  something  left  to  us  from  tlie 
old  Puritan  stock  ;  tliat  which  made  England  what  she  was 
two  centuries  ago ;  that  which  is  fated  to  give  the  closest 
grapple  with  the  Slave  Power  to-day.  This  is  an  invasion 
by  outside  power.  Civilization  in  IGOO  crept  along  our 
shores,  now  planting  her  foot,  and  then  retreating ;  now  gain- 
ing a  footliold,  and  then  receding  before  barbarism,  till  at 
last  came  Jamestown  and  Plymouth,  and  then  thirty  States. 


t 

Wendell  Phillips. 


61 


Harper's  Ferry  is  perhaps  one  of  Raleigh's  or  Gosnold's 
colonies,  vanishing  and  to  be  swept  away ;  by  and  by  will 
come  the  immortal  one  hundred,  and  Plymouth  Rock,  with 
"MANIFEST  destiny"  Written  by  God's  hand  on  their  ban- 
ner, and  the  right  of  unlimited  "  annexation  "  granted  by 
Heaven  itself. 

It  is  the  lesson  of  the  age.  The  first  cropping  out  of  it 
is  in  such  a  man  as  John  Brown.  Gi'ant  that  he  did  not 
measure  his  means  ;  that  he  was  not  thrifty  as  to  his  method  ; 
he  did  not  calculate  closely  enough,  and  he  was  defeated.  What 
is  defeat  ?  Nothing  but  education  —  nothing  but  the  first  step 
to  something  better.  All  that  is  wanted  is,  that  our  public 
opinion  shall  not  creep  around  like  a  servile  coward,  corrupt, 
disordered,  insane  public  opinion,  and  proclaim  that  Governor 
Wise,  because  he  says  he  is  a  Governor,  is  a  Governor ;  that 
Virginia  is  a  State,  because  she  says  she  is  so. 

Thank  God,  I  am  not  a  citizen.  You  will  remember,  all 
of  you,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  that  there  was'not  a 
Virginia  gun  fired  at  John  Brown.  Hundreds  of  well-armed 
Maryland  and  Virginia  troops  rushed  to  Harper's  Ferry 
and  —  went  away  !  Tou  shot  him  !  Sixteen  marines,  to 
whom  you  pay  eight  dollars  a  month  —  your  own  represen- 
tatives. When  the  disturbed  State  could  not  stand  on  her 
own  legs  for  trembling,  you  went  there  and  strengthened  the 
feeble  knees,  and  held  up  tlie  palsied  hand.  Sixteen  men, 
with  the  Vulture  of  the  Union  above  them  —  (sensation)  — 
your  representatives !  It  was  the  covenant  with  death  and 
agreement  with  hell,  which  you  call  the  Union  of  thirty 
8(ates,  (hat  took  the  old  man  by  the  throat  with  a  pirate 
hand ;  and  it  will  be  (he  disgrace  of  our  civilization  if  a  gal- 
lows is  ever  erected  in  Virginia  that  bears  his  body.  "  The 
most  resolute  man  I  ever  saw,"  says  Governor  Wise,  "  the 
most  daring,  the  coolest.  I  would  trust  his  truth  about  any 
question.  The  sincerest !"  Sincerity,  courage,  resolute  dar- 
ing, beating  in  a  heart  that  feared  God,  and  dared  all  to  help 
6 


62 


Wendell  Phillips. 


his  brother  to  liberty  —  Virginia  has  nothing,  nothing  for 
those  qualities  but  a  scaffold !  (Applause.)  In  her  broad 
dominion  she  c?.n  only  afford  him  six  feet  for  a  grave  !  God 
help  the  Commonwealth  that  bids  such  welcome  to  the  noblest 
qualities  that  can  grace  poor  human  nature  !  Yet  that  is  the 
acknowledgment  of  Governor  Wise  himself!  I  will  not  dig- 
nify such  a  horde  with  the  name  of  a  Despotism  ;  since  Des- 
potism is  sometimes  magnanimous.  Witness  Russia,  covering 
Schamyl  with  generous  protection.  Compare  that  with  mad 
Virginia,  hurrying  forward  this  ghastly  trial. 

They  say  it  cost  the  officers  and  persons  in  responsible 
positions  more  effort  to  keep  hundreds  of  startled  soldiers 
from  shooting  the  five  prisoners,  uixteen  marines  had  made, 
than  it  cost  those  marines  to  take  the  Armory  itself.  Soldiers 
and  civilians — both  alike — only  a  mob  fancying  itself  a  gov- 
ernment !  And  mark  you,  I  have  said  they  were  not  a  gov- 
ernment. They  not  only  are  not  a  government,  but  they 
have  not  even  the  rensotest  idea  of  what  a  government  is. 
(Laughter.)  They  do  not  begin  to  liave  the  faintest  concep- 
tion of  what  a  civilized  government  is.  Here  is  a  man  ar- 
raigned before  a  jury,  or  about  to  be.  The  State  of  Virginia, 
as  she  calls  herself,  is  about  to  try  him.  The  first  step  in  that 
trial  is  a  jury ;  the  second  is  a  judge  ;  and  at  the  head  stands 
the  Chief  Executive  of  the  State,  who  holds  the  power  to 
pardon  murder ;  and  yet  that  very  Executive,  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  the  subliraest  chapter  in  Algernon 
Sydney's  immortal  book,  is  bound  by  the  very  responsibility 
that  rests  on  him,  to  keep  his  mind  impartial  as  to  the  guilt 
of  any  person  arraigned,  hastens  down  to  Richmond,  hurries 
to  the  platform,  and  proclaims  to  the  assembled  Common- 
wealth of  Virginia,  "  The  man  is  a  murderer,  and  ought  to 
be  hung."  Almost  every  lip  in  the  State  might  have  said  it 
except  that  single  lip  of  its  Governor ;  and  the  moment  he 
had  uttered  these  words,  in  the  theory  of  the  English  law,  it 
was  not  possible  to  imp&nnel  an  impartial  jury  in  the  Com- 


Wendell  Phillips. 


63 


monwealth  of  Virginia ;  it  was  not  possible  to  get  the  mate- 
rials and  the  machinery  to  try  him  according  to  even  the 
ugliest  pattern  of  English  jurisprudence.  And  yet  the  Gov- 
ernor does  not  know  that  he  has  written  himself  down  non 
compos,  and  the  Commonwealth  that  he  governs  supposes 
itself  still  a  Christian  polity.  They  have  not  the  faintest 
conception  of  what  goes  to  make  up  government.  The  worst 
Jeffries  that  ever,  in  his  most  drunken  hour,  climbed  up  a 
lamp-post  in  the  strejts  o^  London,  would  not  have  tried  a 
man  who  could  not  stand  on  his  feet.  There  is  no  such 
record  in  the  blackest  roll  of  tyranny.  If  Jeffries  could 
speak,  he  would  thank  God  that  at  last  his  name  might  be 
taken  down  from  the  gibbet  of  History,  since  the  Virginia 
Bench  has  made  his  worst  act  white,  set  against  the  black- 
ness of  this  modern  infamy.  (Applause.)  And  yet  the 
New  York  press  daily  prints  the  accounts  of  the  trial. 
Trial !  In  the  names  of  Holt  and  Somers,  of  Hale  and  Er- 
skine,  of  Parsons,  Marshall,  and  Jay,  I  protest  against  the 
name.  Trial  for  life,  in  Anglo-Saxon  dialect,  has  a  proud, 
historic  meaning.  It  includes  indictment  by  impartial  peers  ; 
a  copy  of  such  indictment  and  a  list  of  witnesses  furnished 
the  prisoner,  with  ample  time  to  scrutinize  both ;  liberty  to 
choose,  and  time  to  get  counsel ;  a  sound  body  and  a  sound 
mind  to  arrange  one's  defence  ;  I  need  not  add,  a  judge  and 
jury  impartial  as  the  lot  of  humanity  will  admit ;  honored 
bulwarks  and  safeguards,  each  one  the  trophy  and  result  '>f 
a  century's  struggle.  Wounded,  fevered,  lying  half  unc  m- 
scious  on  his  pallet,  unable  to  stand  on  his  feet,  the  Irial 
half  finished  before  his  first  request  for  aid  had  reached  his 
friends,  —  no  list  of  witnesses  ur  k  /ledge  of  them  till  the 
crier,  calling  the  name  of  some  assassin  of  his  comrades, 
wakes  him  to  consciousness ;  the  judge  a  tool,  and  the  pros- 
ecutor seeking  popularity  by  pandering  to  the  mob;  no 
decent  form  observed,  and  the  essence  of  a  fair  trial  wholly 
wanting,  our  History  and  Law  alike  protest  Jigainst  degrad- 


64 


Wendell  Phillips. 


ing  the  honoi-ed  name  of  Jury  Trial  by  leading  it  to  such  an 
outrage  as  this.  Tlie  Inquisition  used  to  break  every  other 
bone  in  a  man's  body,  and  then  lay  him  on  a  pallet,  giving 
him  neither  counsel  nor  opportunity  to  consult  one,  and 
wring  from  his  tortured  mouth  something  like  a  confession, 
and  call  it  a  trial.  But  it  was  heaven-robed  innocence  com- 
pared with  the  trial,  or  what  the  New  York  press  call  so, 
that  has  been  going  on  in  crazed  and  maddened  Charlestown. 

I  wish  I  could  say  any  thing  worthy  of  the  great  deed  which 
has  taken  place  in  our  day — the  opening  of  the  sixth  seal,  the 
pouring  out  of  the  last  vial  but  one  on  a  corrupt  and  giant  In- 
stitution. I  know  that  many  men  will  deem  me  a  fanatic  for 
uttering  this  whosesale  vituperation,  as  it  will  be  called,  upon 
a  State,  and  this  indorsement  of  a  madman.  I  can  only  say 
that  I  have  spoken  on  this  Anti-slavery  question  before  the 
Americau  people  thirty  years ;  that  I  have  seen  the  day  when 
this  same  phase  of  popular  feeling  —  rifles  and  force  —  was 
on  the  other  side.  You  remember  the  first  time  I  was  ever 
privileged  to  stand  on  this  pla'tforni  by  the  magnanimous  gen- 
erosity of  your  clergyman,  when  New  York  was  about  to  bully 
and  crush  out  the  freedom  of  speech  at  the  dictation  of  Capt. 
Rynders.  From  that  day  to  this,  the  same  braving  of  public 
thought  has  been  going  on  from  here  to  Kansas,  until  it  bloomed 
in  the  events  of  the  last  three  years.  It  has  changed  the  whole 
face  of  the  sentiment  in  these  Northern  States.  You  meet 
with  the  evidence  of  it  every  where.  When  the  first  news 
from  Harper's  Ferry  came  to  Massachusetts,  if  you  were  rid- 
ing in  the  cars,  if  you  were  walking  in  the  streets,  if  you  met 
a  Democrat,  or  a  Whig,  or  a  Republican,  no  matter  what  his 
politics,  it  was  a  singular  circumstance  that  he  did  not  speak 
of  the  guilt  of  Brown,  of  the  atrocity  of  the  deed,  as  you  might 
have  expected.  The  first  impulsive  expression,  the  first  out- 
break of  every  man's  woi'ds  was,  "  What  a  pity  he  did  not 
succeed  !  (Laughter.)  What  a  fool  he  was  for  not  going  off 
Monday,  when  he  had  all  he  wanted !    How  strange  that  he 


Wendell  Philiips.  65 

did  not  take  his  victory,  and  march  away  witli  it ! "  It  indi- 
cated the  unconscious  leavening  of  a  sympathy  with  the  at- 
tempt. Days  followed  on  ;  they  commenced  what  they  called 
their  trial ;  you  met  the  same  classes  again  ;  no  man  said  he 
ought  to  be  hung ;  no  man  said  he  was  guilty ;  no  man  pred- 
icated any  thing  of  his  moral  position ;  every  ;nan  volunta- 
rily and  inevitably  seemed  to  give  vent  to  his  indignation  at 
the  farce  of  a  trial,  indicative  again  of  that  unheeded,  potent, 
unconscious,  but  widespread  sympathy  on  the  side  of  Brown. 

Do  you  suppose  that  these  things  mean  nothing  ?  What 
the  tender  and  poetic  youth  dreams  to-day,  as  Emerson  says, 
and  conjures  up  with  inarticulate  speech,  is  to-morrow  the 
vociferated  result  of  public  opinion,  and  the  day  after  is  tlie 
charter  of  nations.  The  American  people  have  begun  to  feel. 
The  mute  eloquence  of  the  fugitive  slave  has  gone  up  and 
down  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  country ;  it  will  annex 
itself  to  the  great  American  heart  of  the  North,  even  in  the 
most  fossil  state  of  its  hunkei-ism,  as  a  latent  sympathy  with 
its  right  side.  This  blow,  like  the  first  gun  at  Lexington, 
"heard  around  the  Avorld,"  —  this  blow  at  Harper's  Ferry 
reveals  men.  Watch  those  about  you,  and  you  will  see  more 
of  the  temper  and  unconscious  purpose  and  real  moral  posi- 
tion of  men  than  you  would  imagine.  This  is  the  way  nations 
are  to  be  judged.  Be  not  in  a  hurry  ;  action  will  come  soon 
enough  from  this  sentiment.  We  stereotype  feeling  into  intel- 
lect, and  then  into  statutes,  and  finally  into  national  character. 
We  have  now  the  first  stage  of  growth.  Nature's  live  growths 
crowd  out  and  rive  dead  matter.  Ideas  strangle  statutes. 
Pulse-beats  wear  down  granite,  whether  piled  in  jails  or  cap- 
itols.  The  people's  hearts  are  the  only  title-deeds  after  all. 
Your  Barnburners  said,  "Patroon  titles  are  unrightectus." 
Judges  replied,  "  Such  is  the  law."  Wealth  shrieked,  "  Vested 
rights ! "  Parties  talked  of  Constituti'ons ;  still,  the  people 
said,  "  Sin."  They  shot  a  sheriff.  A  parrot  press  cried, 
"  Anarchy ! "  Lawyers  growled,  "  Murder ! "  —  still,  nobody 
6* 


66 


Wendell  Phillips. 


was  hung,  if  I  recollect  aright.  To-day,  the  heart  of  the 
Barnburner  beats  in  the  statute-book  of  your  State.  John 
Brown's  movement  against  Slavery  is  exactly  the  same.  Wait 
a  while,  and  you'll  all  agree  with  me.  What  is  fanaticism  to- 
day is  the  fashionable  creed  to-morrow,  and  trite  as  the  multi- 
plication table  a  week  after. 

John  Brown  has  stirred  those  omnipotent  pulses  —  Lydia 
Maria  Child's  is  one.  She  says,  "  That  dungeon  is  the  place 
for  me,"  and  writes  a  letter  in  magnanimous  appeal  to  the  bet- 
ter nature  of  Gov.  Wise.  She  says  in  it,  "  John  Brown  is  a 
hero;  he  has  done  a  noble  deed.  I  think  he  was  all  right; 
but  he  is  sick  ;  he  is  wounded  ;  he  wants  a  woman's  nursing. 
I  am  an  Abolitionist ;  I  have  been  so  thirty  years.  I  think 
Slavery  is  a  sin,  and  John  Brown  a  saint ;  but  I  want  to  come 
and  nurse  him  ;  and  T  pledge  my  word  that  if  yc  ^  will  open 
his  prisou  door,  I  will  use  the  privilege,  under  sacred  honor, 
only  to  nurse  him.  I  enclose  you  a  message  to  Brown  ;  be 
sure  and  deliver  it."  And  the  message  was,  "  Old  man,  God 
bless  you  !  You  liave  struck  a  noble  blow ;  you  have  done  a 
mighty  work  ;  God  was  with  you  ;  your  heart  wa?  in  the  right 
place.  I  send  you  across  five  hundred  miles  the  pulse  of  a 
woman's  gratitude."  And  Gov.  Wise  has  opened  the  door, 
and  announced  to  the  world  that  she  may  go  in.  John  Brown 
has  conquerai  the  pirate.  (Applause.)  Hope  !  there  is  hope 
every  where.    It  is  only  the  universal  history : 

"  Right  forever  on  the  scaffold,  Wrong  forever  on  the  throne; 
But  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and  behind  the  dim  unknown 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above  his  own." 


in. 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.* 
R.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS;  I 


-JjL  share  tlie  sympathy  and  sorrow  which  have  brought 
us  together.  Gentlemen  who  have  preceded  me  have  well 
said  that  no  wall  of  separation  could  here  exist.  TJiis  com- 
manding event,  which  has  brought  us  together  —  the  sequel 
of  which  has  brought  us  together,  —  eclipses  all  others  which 
have  occurred  for  a  long  time  in  our  history,  and  I  am  very 
glad  to  see  that  this  iSudden  interest  in  the  hero  of  Hai  per's 
Ferry  has  .provoked  an  extreme  curiosity  in  all  parts  of  the 
Republic,  in  regard  to  the  details  of  his  history.  Every  anec- 
dote is  eagerly  sought,  and  I  do  not  wonder  that  gentlemen 
find  traits  of  relation  readily  between  him  and  themselves. 
One  finds  a  relation  in  the  church,  another  in  the  profession, 
another  in  tlie  place  of  his  birth.  He  was  happily  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  American  Republic.  Captain  John  Brown  is 
a  farmer,  the  fifth  in  descent  from  Peter  Brown,  who  came  to 
Plymouth  in  the  Mayflower,  in  1620.  All  the  six  have  been 
farmers.  His  grandfather,  of  Simsbury,  in  Connecticut,  was 
a  captain  in  the  Revolution.  His  father,  largely  interested 
as  a  raiser  of  stock,  became  a  contractor  to  supply  the  Army 
with  beef,  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  our  Captain  John  Brown, 
then  a  boy,  with  his  father,  was  present,  and  witnessed  the 

*  Delivered  in  Tromont  Temple,  on  Snturday  evening,  November  IS,  at  a  raeeticg 
held  for  the  relief  of  the  fumily  of  John  Brown. 


(67) 


68 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon. 


surrender  of  General  Hull.  He  cherishes  a  great  respect  for 
his  father,  as  a  man  of  strong  character,  and  his  respect  is  prob- 
ably just.  For  himself,  he  is  so  transparent  that  all  men  see 
him  through.  He  is  a  man  to  make  friends  wherever  on 
earth  courage  and  integrity  are  esteemed  —  (applause)  —  the 
rarest  of  heroes,  a  pure  idealist,  with  no  by-ends  of  his  own. 
Many  of  you  have  seen  him,  and  every  one  who  has  heard 
him  speak  has  been  impressed  alike  by  his  simple,  ai'tless 
goodness,  joined  with  his  sublime  courage.  He  joins  that 
perfect  Puritan  faith  which  brought  his  fifth  ancestor  to  Plym- 
outh Rock,  v?ith  his  grandfather's  ardor  in  the  Revolution. 
He  believes  in  two  articles  —  two  instruments  shall  I  say  ?  — 
the  Golden  Rule  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence ;  (ap- 
plause) —  and  he  used  this  expression  in  conversation  here 
concerning  them,  "  Better  that  a  whole  generation  of  men, 
women,  and  children  should  pass  away  by  a  violent  death, 
than  that  one  word  of  either  should  be  violated  in  this  coun- 
try." There  is  a  Unionist  —  there  is  a  strict  constructionist 
for  you!  (Applause  and  laughter.)  He  believes  in  the 
Union  of  the  States,  and  he  conceives  that  the  only  obstruc- 
tion to  the  Union  is  Slavery,  and  for  that  reason,  as  a  patriot, 
he  works  for  its  abolition.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  has  pro- 
nounced his  eulogy  in  a  manner  that  discredits  the  moderation 
of  our  timid  parties.  His  own  speeches  to  the  court  have 
interested  the  nation  in  him.  What  magnanimity,  and  what 
innocent  pleading,  as  of  childhood !  You  remember  his 
words  —  "If  I  had  interfered  in  behalf  of  the  rich,  the  pow- 
erful, the  intelligent,  the  so-called  great,  or  any  of  their 
friends,  parents,  wives,  or  children,  it  would  all  have  been  right. 
No  man  in  this  court  would  have  thought  it  a  crime.  But  I 
believe  that  to  have  interfered  as  I  have  done,  for  the  despised 
poor,  I  have  done  no  wrong,  but  right." 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  a  favorite  he  will  be  with  history,  which 
plays  such  pranks  with  temporary  reputations.  Nothing  can 
resist  the  sympathy  which  all  elevated  minds  must  feel  with 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon.  69 

Brown,  and  through  them  the  whole  civilized  world ;  and,  if 
he  must  suffer,  he  must  drag  official  gentlemen  into  an  im- 
mortality most  undesirable,  and  of  which  they  have  already 
some  disagreeable  forebodings.  (Applause.)  Indeed,  it  is 
the  reductio  ad  absurdum  of  Slavery,,  when  the  Governor  of 
Virginia  is  forced  to  hang  a  man  whom  he  declares  to  be  a 
man  of  the  most  integrity,  truthfulness,  and  courage  he  has 
ever  met.  Is  that  the  kind  of  man  the  gallows  is  built  for  ? 
It  were  bold  to  affirm  that  there  is  within  that  broad  Com- 
monwealth, at  this  moment,  another  citizen  as  worthy  to  live, 
and  as  deserving  of  all  public  and  private  honoi',  as  this  poor 
prisoner. 

But  we  are  here  to  think  of  relief  for  the  family  of  John 
Brown.  To  my  eyes,  that  family  looks  very  large  and  very 
needy  of  relief.  It  comprises  his  brave  fellow-sufferers  in  the 
Charlestown  jail ;  the  fugitives  still  hunted  in  the  mountains 
of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania ;  the  sympathizers  with  liim  in 
all  the  States ;  and  I  may  say,  almost  every  man  who  loves 
the  Golden  Rule  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  like 
him,  and  who  sees  what  a  tiger's  thirst  threatens  him  in  the 
malignity  of  public  sentiment  in  the  Slave  States.  It  seems  to 
me  that  a  common  feeling  joins  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
with  him.  I  said  John  Brown  was  an  idealist.  He  believed 
in  his  ideas  to  that  extent  that  he  existed  to  put  them  all  into 
action ;  he  said  "  he  did  not  believe  in  moral  suasion ;  —  he  be- 
lieved in  putting  the  thing  through."  (Applause.)  He  saw 
how  deceptive  the  forms  are.  We  fancy,  in  Massachusetts, 
that  we  are  free ;  yet  it  seems  the  Government  is  quite  un- 
reliable. Great  wealth,  —  great  population,  —  men  of  talent 
in  the  Executive,  on  the  Bench,  —  all  the  forms  right,  —  and 
yet,  life  and  freedom  are  not  safe.  Why  ?  Because  the  Judges 
rely  on  the  forms,  and  do  not,  like  John  Brown,  use  their 
eyes  to  see  the  fact  behind  the  forms. 

They  assume  that  the  United  States  can  protect  its  wit- 
ness or  its  prisoner.    And,  in  Massachusetts,  that  is  true, 


70  Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon. 


but  the  moment  he  is  carried  out.  of  the  bounds  of  Massa- 
chusetts, the  United  States,  it  is^notorious,  afford  no  protection 
at  all ;  the  Government,  the  Judges,  are  an  envenomed  party, 
and  give  such  protection  as  they  give  in  Utah  to  honest  citi- 
zens, or  in  Kansas ;  such  protection  as  they  gave  to  their  own 
Commodore  Paulding,  when  he  was  simple  enough  to  mistake 
the  formal  instructions  of  his  Government  for  their  real  mean- 
ing. (Applause.)  The  State  Judges  fear  collision  between 
their  two  allegiances ;  but  there  are  worse  evils  than  collision ; 
namely,  the  doing  substantial  injustice.  A  good  man  will  see 
that  the  use  of  a  Judge  is  to  secure  good  government,  and 
where  the  citizen's  weal  is  imperilled  by  abuse  of  the  Federal 
power,  to  use  that  arm  which  can  secure  it,  viz.,  the  local 
government.  Had  that  been  done  on  certain  calamitous  occa- 
sions, we  should  not  have  seen  the  honor  of  Massachusetts 
trailed  in  the  dust,  stained  to  all  ages,  once  and  again,  by  the 
ill-timed  formalism  of  a  venerable  Bench.  If  Judges  cannot 
find  law  enough  to  maintain  the  sovereignty  of  the  State,  and 
to  protect  the  life  and  freedom  of  every  inhabitant  not  a  crim- 
inal, it  is  idle  to  compliment  them  as  learned  and  venerable. 
"What  avails  their  learning  or  veneration  ?  At  a  pinch,  they 
are  of  no  more  use  than  idiots.  After  the  mischance  they 
wring  their  hands,  but  they  had  better  never  have  been  born. 
A  Vermont  Judge  Hutchinson,  who  has  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  in  his  heart,  a  Wisconsin  Judge,  who  knows 
that  laws  are  for  the  protection  of  citizens  against  Itidnappers, 
is  worth  a  court  house  full  of  lawyers  so  idolatrous  of  forms 
as  to  let  go  the  substance.  Is  any  man  in  Massachusetts  so 
simple  as  to  believe  that  when  a  United  States  Court  in  Vir- 
ginia, now,  in  its  present  reign  of  terror,  sends  to  Connecticut, 
or  New  York,  or  Massachusetts,  for  a  witness,  it  wants  him 
for  a  witness  ?  No ;  it  wants  him  for  a  party ;  it  wants  him 
for  meat  to  slaughter  and  eat.  And  your  habeas  corpus  is,  in 
any  way  in  which  it  has  been,  or,  I  fear,  is  likely  to  be  used, 
a  nuisance,  and  not  a  protection;  for  it  takes  away  his  right 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon.  71 


reliance  on  himself,  and  the  natural  assistance  of  his  friends 
and  fellow-citizens,  by  offering  him  a  form  which  is  a  piece  of 
paper.  But  I  am  detaining  the  meeting  on  matters  which 
others  understand  better.  I  hope,  then,  that  in  administering 
relief  to  John  Brown's  family,  we  shall  remember  all  those 
whom  his  fate  concerns,  all  who  are  in  sympathy  with  him, 
and  not  forget  to  aid  him  in  the  best  way,  by  securing  freedom 
and  independence  in  Massachusetts, 


"Old  John  Bbown.** 

Not  any  spot  six  feet  by  two 

Wil!  hold  a  man  like  thee ; 
John  Brown  will  tramp  the  Bhaking  earth 

From  the  Blue  Ridge  to  the  sea ; 
Till  the  strong  angel  conjcs  at  last, 

And  opes  each  dungeon  door, 
And  God's  "Great  Charter"  holds  and  wares 

O'er  all  bis  humble  poor. 

And  then  the  humble  poor  will  como 

In  that  far  distant  day, 
And  from  the  felon's  nameless  grave 

They'll  brush  the  leaves  away ; 
And  gray  old  men  will  point  the  spot 

Beneath  the  pioe-tree  shade, 
As  children  ask,  with  streaming  eyes. 

Where  "Old  John  Brown"  was  laid. 


IV-. 


Letters  from  Theodore  Parker. 

Bomb,  November  24,  1859. 

MY  DEAR  FRIEND:  I  see  by  a  recent  telegraph 
which  the  steamer  of  November  2d  brought  from  Bos- 
ton, that  the  Court  found  Captain  Brown  guilty,  and  passed 
sentence  upon  him.  It  is  said  Friday,  December  2d,  is  fixed 
as  the  day  for  hanging  him.  So,  long  before  this  reaches  you, 
my  friend  will  have  passed  on  to  the  reward  of  his  magnani- 
mous public  services,  and  his  pure,  upright,  private  life.  I 
am  not  well  enough  to  be  the  minister  to  any  Congregation, 
least  of  all  to  one  like  that  which,  for  so  many  years,  helped 
my  soul,  while  it  listened  to  my  words.  Surely,  the  Twenty- 
Eighth  Congregational  Society  in  Boston  needs  a  minister, 
not  half  dead,  but  alive  all  over ;  and  yet,  while  reading  the 
accounts  of  the  affair  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  of  the  sayings  of 
certain  men.  at  Boston,  whom  you  and  I  know  only  too  well, 
I  could  not  help  wishing  I  was  at  home  again,  to  use  what 
poor  remnant  of  power  is  left  to  me  in  defence  of  the  True 
and  the  Right. 

America  is  rich  in  able  men,  in  skilful  writers,  in  ready 
and  accomplished  speakers.  But  few  men  dare  treat  pubUc 
affairs  with  reference  to  the  great  principles  of  justice,  and 
the  American  Democracy;  nay,  few  with  reference  to  any 
remote  future,  or  even  Avith  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the 
present.  Our  public  writers  ask  what  effect  will  this  opinion 
7  (73) 


74 


Theodore  Parker. 


have  oil  the  Democratic  party,  or  the  Republican  party  ?  how 
will  it  affect  the  next  Presidential  election?  what  will  the 
great  State  of  Pennsylvania,  or  Ohio,  or  New  York  say  to  it  ? 
This  is  very  unfortunate  for  us  all,  especially  when  the  people 
have  to  deal  practically  and  that  speedily  with  a  question 
concerning  the  very  existence  of  Democratic  institutions  in 
America;  for  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  we  must  give  up 
Democracy  if  we  keep  Slavery  or  give  up  Slavery  if 
we  keep  Democracy. 

I  greatly  deplore  this  state  of  things.  Our  able  men  fail 
to  perform  their  natural  function — -to  give  valuable  instruc- 
tion and  advice  to  the  people ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  they 
debase  and  degrade  themselves.  The  hurrahs  and  the  offices 
they  get  are  poor  compensation  for  falseness  to  their  own 
consciences. 

In  my  best  estate,  I  do  not  pretend  to  much  political  wis- 
dom, and  still  less  now  while  sick ;  but  I  wish  yet  to  set  down 
a  few  thoughts  for  your  private  eye,  and,  it  may  be,  '  r  the 
ear  of  the  Fraternity.  They  are,  at  least,  the  result  of  long 
meditation  on  the  subject ;  besides,  they  are  not  at  all  new 
nor  peculiar  to  me,  but  are  a  part  of  the  Public  Knowledge 
of  all  enlightened  men. 

1.  A  man,  Field  against  Ms  'will  as  a  slave,  has  a  natural 
right  to  kill  evert/  one  tvho  seeks  to  prevent  his  enjoyment  of 
liberty.  This  has  long  been  recognized  as  a  self-evident 
proposition,  coming  so  directly  from  the  Primitive  Instincts 
of  Human  Nature,  that  it  neither  required  proofs  nor  admitted 
them. 

2.  It  may  be  a  natural  duty  of  the  slave  to  develop  this  nat- 
ural  right  in  a  practical  manner,  and  actually  kill  all  those 
who  seek  to  prevent  his  enjoyment  of  liberty.  For,  if  he  con- 
tinue patiently  in  bondage:  Firsts  he  entails  the  foulest  of 
curses  on  his  children  ;  and,  second,  he  encourages  other  men 
to  commit  the  crime  against  nature  which  he  allows  his  own 
master  to  commit.   It  is  njy  dqty  to  preserve  jny  own  body 


Theodore  Parker. 


75 


from  starvation.  If  I  fail  thereof  through  sloth,  I  not  only 
die,  but  incur  the  contempt  and  loathing  of  my  acquaint- 
ances while  I  live.  It  is  not  less  ray  duty  to  do  all  that  is 
in  my  power  to  preserve  my  body  and  soul, from  Slavery; 
and  if  I  submit  to  that  through  cowardice,  I  not  only  become 
a  bondman,  and  suffer  what  thraldom  inflicts,  but  I  incur  also 
the  contempt  and  loathing  of  my  acquaintance.  Why  do 
freemen  scorn  and  despise  a  slave  ?  Because  they  think  his 
condition  is  a  sign  of  his  cowardice,  and  believe  that  he  ought 
to  prefer  death  to  bondage.  The  Southerners  hold  the  Afri- 
cans in  great  contempt,  though  mothers  of  their  children. 
Why  ?  Simply  because  the  Africans  are  slaves ;  that  is, 
because  the  Africans  fail  to  perform  the  natural  duty  of 
securing  freedom  by  killing  their  oppressors. 

3.  The  freeman  has  a  natural  right  to  help  the  slaves  recov- 
er their  liberty,  and  in  that  enterprise  to  do  for  them  all  which 
they  have  a  right  to  do  for  themselves.  This  statement,  I 
think,  requires  no  argument  or  illustration. 

4.  It  may  he  a  natural  duty  for  the  freeman  to  help  the  slaves 
to  the  enjoyment  of  their  liberty,  and,  as  means  io  that  end  to 
aid  them  in  killing  all  such  as  oppose  their  natural  freedom. 
If  you  were  attacked  by  a  wolf,  I  should  not  only  have  a 
right  to  aid  you  in  getting  rid  of  that  enemy,  but  it  Avouid  be  • 
my  DUTY  to  help  you  in  proportion  to  my  power.    If  it  were 

a  MURDERER,  and  not  a  wolf,  who  attacked  you,  the  duty 
would  be  still  the  same.  Suppose  it  is  not  a  murderer  who 
would  kill  you,  but  a  kidnapper  who  would  enslave,  does 
that  make  it  less  my  duty  to  help  you  out  of  the  hands  of 
your  enemy?  Suppose  it  is  not  a  kidnapper  who  would 
make  you  a  bondman,  but  a  slaveholder  %vho  would  keep 
you  one,  does  that  remove  my  obligation  to  help  you  ? 

5.  2Vie  performance  of  this  duty  is  to  be  controlled  by  the 
freeman's  power  and  opportunity  to  help  the  slaves.  (The  Im- 
possible is  never  the  Obligatory.)  I  cannot  help  the  slaves 
in  Dahomey  or  Bornou,  and  am  not  bound  to  try.   I  can  help 


76 


Theodore  Parker. 


those  who  escape  to  my  own  neighboi'hood,  and  I  ought  to  do 
so.  My  duty  is  commensurate  with  my  power ;  and,  as  my 
power  increases,  ray  duty  enlarges  along  with  it.  If  I  could 
help  the  bondmen  in  Virginia  to  their  freedom  as  easily  and 
efifectually  as  I  can  aid  the  runaway  at  my  own  door,  then  I 
OUGHT  to  do  so. 

These  five  maxims  have  a  direct  application  to  America 
at  this  day,  and  the  people  of  the  Free  States  have  a  certain 
dim  perception  thereof,  which,  fortunately,  is  becoming  clearer 
every  year. 

Thus,  the  people  of  Massachusetts  feel  that  they  ought  to 
protect  the  fugitive  slaves  who  come  into  our  State.  Hence 
come,  first  the  irregular  attempts  to  secure  their  liberty,  and 
the  declarations  of  noble  men,  like  Timothy  Gilbert,  George 
W.  Carnes,  and  others,  that  they  will  do  so  even  at  great 
personal  risk ;  and,  secondly  the  statute  laws  made  by  the 
legislature  to  accomplish  that  end. 

Now,  if  Massachusetts  had  the  power  to  do  as  much  for  the 
slaves  in  Virginia  as  for  the  runaways  in  her  own  territory, 
we  should  soon  see  those  two  sets  of  measures  at  work  in  that 
direction  also. 

I  find  it  is  said  in  the  Democratic  newspapers  that  "  Cap- 
tain Brown  had  many  friends  at  the  North,  who  sympa- 
thized with  him  in  general,  and  in  special  approved  of  this 
particular  scheme  of  his ;  they  furnished  him  with  some 
twelve  or  twenty  thousand  dollars,  it  would  seem."  I  think 
much  more  than  that  is  true  of  us.  If  he  had  succeeded 
in  running  off  one  or  two  thousand  slaves  to  Canada,  even 
at  the  expense  of  a  little  violence  and  bloodshed,  the  ma- 
jority of  men  in  New  England  would  have  rejoiced,  not  only 
in  the  End,  hut  also  in  the  Means.  The  first  successful 
attempt  pf  a  considerable  number  of  slaves  to  secure  their 
freedom  by  violence  will  clearly  show  how  deep  is  the  sym- 
pathy of  the  people  for  them,  and  how  strongly  they  embrace 
the  five  principles  I  mentioned  above.    A  little  success  of 


Theodore  Parker. 


77 


that  sort  will  serve  as  priming  for  the  popular  cannon ;  it  is 
already  loaded. 

Of  course,  I  was  not  astonished  to  hear  that  an  attempt  had 
been  made  to  free  the  slaves  in  a  certain  part  of  Virginia,  nor 
should  I  be  astonished  if  another  "insurrection"  or  "rebel- 
lion "  took  place  in  the  State  of  or  a  third  in  , 

or  a  fourth  in  .    Such  things  are  to  be  expected;  for 

they  do  not  depend  merely  on  the  private  will  of  men  like 
Captain  Brown  and  his  associates,  but  on  the  great  Geneml 
Causes  which  move  all  human  kind  to  hate  Wrong  and  love 
Right.  Such  "  insurrections  "  will  continue  as  long  as  Sla- 
very lasts,  and  will  increase,  both  in  frequency  and  in  power, 
just  as  the  people  become  intelligent  and  moral.  Virginia 
may  hang  John  Brown  and  all  that  family,  but  she  cannot 
hang  the  Human  Race  ;  and,  until  that  is  done,  noble  men 
will  rejoice  in  the  motto  of  that  once  magnanimous  State  — 
"  Sic  semper  Tyrannis !  "  "  Let  such  be  the  end  of  every 
oppressor." 

It  is  a  good  Anti-Slavery  picture  on  the  Virginia  shield ; 
a  man  standing  on  a  tyrant  and  chopping  his  head  off  with  a 
sword ;  only  I  would  paint  the  sword-holder  llacJc  arid  the 
tyrant  white^  to  show  the  immediate  application  of  the  prin- 
ciple. The  American  people  will  have  to  march  to  rather 
severe  music,  I  think,  and  it  is  better  for  them  to  face  it  in 
season.  A  few  years  ago  it  did  not  seem  difficult  first  to 
check  Slavery,  and  then  to  end  it  without  any  bloodshed.  I 
think  this  cannot  be  done  now,  nor  ever  in  the  future.  All 
the  great  charters  of  Humanity  have  been  writ  in  blood.  I 
once  hoped  that  of  American  Democracy  would  be  engrossed 
in  less  costly  ink ;  but  it  is  plain,  now,  that  our  pilgrimage 
must  lead  through  a  Red  Sea,  wherein  many  a  Pharaoh  will 
go  under  and  perish.  Alas  !  that  we  are  not  wise  enough  to 
be  just,  or  just  enough  to  be  wise,  and  so  gain  much  at  small 
cost ! 

Look,  now,  at  a  few  notorious  facts : 
7* 


78 


Theodore  Parker. 


I.  There  are  four  million  slaves  in  the  United  States  vio- 
lently withheld  from  their  natural  right  to  life,  liberty,  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Now,  they  are  our  fellow  country- 
men—  yours  and  mine — just  as  much  as  any  four  million 
lohite  men.  Of  course,  you  and  I  "  owe  them  the  duty  which 
one  man  owes  another  of  his  own  nation — the  duty  of  in- 
struction, advice,  and  protection  of  natural  rights.  If  they 
are  starving,  we  ought  to  help  feed  them.  The  color  of  their 
skins,  their  degraded  social  condition,  their  ignorance,  abates 
nothing  from  their  natural  claim  on  us,  or  from  our  natural 
duty  toward  them. 

There  are  men  in  all  the  Northern  States  who  feel  the 
obligation  which  citizenship  imposes  on  them  —  the  duty  to 
help  those  slaves.  Hence  arose  the  Anti-Slavery  Socibti, 
which  seeks  simply  to  excite  the  white  people  to  perform  their 
n.itural  duty  to  their  dark  fellow-countrymen.  Hence  comes 
Captain  Brown's  Expedition  —  an  attempt  to  help  his 
countrymen  enjoy  their  natural  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness. 

He  sought  by  violence  what  the  •  Anti-Slavery  Society 
works  for  with  other  weapons.  The  two  agree  in  the  end, 
and  differ  only  in  the  means.  Men  like  Captain  Brown  will 
be  continually  rising  up  among  the  white  people  of  the  Free 
States,  attempting  to  do  their  natural  duty  to  their  black 
countrymen  —  that  is,  help  them  to  freedom.  Some  of  these 
efforts  v;ill  be  successful.  Thus,  last  winter,  Captain  Brown 
himself  escorted  eleven  of  his  countrymen  from  bondage  in 
Missouri  to  freedom  in  Canada.  He  did  not  snap  a  gun,  I 
think,  although  then,  as  more  recently,  he  had  his  fighting 
tools  at  hand,  and  would  have  used  them,  if  necessary.  Even 
now,  the  Underground  Railroad  is  in  constant  and  beneficent 
operation.  By-and-by  it  will  be  an  Overground  Railroad 
from  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  clear  to  Canada :  the  only  tun- 
nelling will  be  in  the  Slave  States.  Northern  men  applaud 
the  brave  conductors  of  that  Locomotive  of  Liberty. 


Theodore  Parker. 


79 


When  Thomas  Garrett  was  introduced  to  a  meeting  of  po- 
litical Free-Soilers  in  Boston,  as  "  the  man  who  had  helped 
eighteen  hundred  slaves  to  their  natural  liberty,"  even  that 
meeting  gave  the  righteous  Quaker  three  times  three.  All 
honest  Northern  hearts  bS'at  with  admiration  of  such  men; 
nay,  with  love  for  them.  Young  lads  say,  "I  wish  that 
heaven  would  make  me  such  a  man."  The  wish  will  now 
and  then  be  father  to  the  fact.  You  and  I  have  had  oppor- 
tunity enough,  in  twenty  years,  to  see  that  this  philanthropic 
patriotism  is  on  the  increase  at  the  North,  and  the  special 
direction  it  takes  is  toward  the  liberation  of  their  countrymen 
in  bondage. 

Not  many  years  ago,  Boston  sent  money  to  help  the  Greeks 
in  their  struggle  for  political  freedom,  (they  never  quite  lost 
their  personal  liberty^  but  with  the  money,  she  sent  what  was 
more  valuable  and  far  more  precious,  one  of  her  most  valiant 
and  heroic  sons,  who  staid  in  Greece  to  fight  the  great  battle 
of  Humanity.  Did  your  friend,  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Kowe,*lose 
the  esteem  of  New  England  men  by  that  act  ?  He  won  the 
admiration  of  Europe,  and  holds  it  still. 

Nay,  still  later,  the  same  dear  old  Boston  —  Hunkers  have 
never  been  moi'e  than  rats  and  mice  in  her  house,  which  she 
suffers  for  a  time  and  then  drives  out  twelve  hundred  of  them 
at  once  on  a  certain  day  of  March,  1776,  —  that  same  dear 
old  Boston  sent  the  same  Dr.  Howe  to  carry  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  Poles,  then  in  deadly  struggle  for  their  political  exist- 
ence. Was  he  disgraced  because  he  lay  seven-and-forty  days 
in  a  Prussian  jail  in  Berlin  ?  Not  even  in  the  ey^s  of  the 
Prussian  King,  who  afterwards  sent  him  a  gold  medal,  whose 
metal  was  worth  as  many  dollars  as  that  philanthropist  lay 
days  in  the  despot's  jail.  It  is  said,  "  Charity  should  begin  at 
home."  The  American  began  a  good  ways  off,  but  has  been 
working  homeward  ever  since.  The  Dr.  Howe  of  to-day 
would  and  ouglit  to  be  more  ready  to  help  an  American  to 
2)ersonal  liberty,  than  a  Pole  or  a  Greek  to  mere  political  free- 


8o 


Theodore  Parker. 


dom,  and  would  find  more  men  to  furnish  aid  and  comfort  to 
dur  own  countrymen,  even  if  they  were  black.  It  would  not 
surprise  me  if  there  were  other  and  well-planned  attempts  in 
other  States  to  do  what  Captain  Brown  heroically,  if  not  suc- 
cessfully, tried  in  Virginia.  Nine  out  of  ten  may  fail  —  the 
tenth  will  succeed.  The  victory  over  General  Burgoyne 
more  than  made  up  for  all  the  losses  in  many  a  previous 
defeat ;  it  was  the  beginning  of  the  end.  Slavery  will  not 
die  a  dry  death ;  it  may  have  as  many  lives  as  a  eat ;  at  last, 
it  will  die  like  a  mad  dog  in  a  village,  with  only  the  enemies 
of  the  human  kind  to  lament  its  fate,  and  they  too  cowardly 
to  appear  as  mourners. 

II.  But  it  is  not  merely  white  men  who  will  fight  for  the 
liberiy  of  Americans ;  the  negroes  will  take  their  defence  into 
their  own  hands,  especially  if  they  can  find  white  men  to  lead 
them.  No  doubt  the  African  race  is  greatly  inferior  to  the 
Caucasian  in  general  intellectual  power,  and  also  in  that 
instinct  for  liberty  which  is  so  strong  in  the  Teutonic  family, 
and  just  now  obvious  in  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  Britain  and 
America;  besides,  the  African  race  have  but  little  desire  for 
vengeance  —  the  lowest  form  of  the  love  of  justice.  Here  is 
one  example  out  of  many :  In  Santa  Cruz,  tlie  old  slave  laws 
were  the  most  horrible,  I  think,  I  ever  read  of  in  modern 
times,  unless  those  of  the  Carolinas  be  an  exception.  If  a 
slave  excited  others  to  run  away,  for  the  first  offence  his  right 
leg  was  to  be  cut  off ;  for  the  second  offence,  his  other  leg. 
This  mutilation  was  not  to  be  done  by  a  surgeon's  hand  ;  the 
poor  wretch  was  laid  down  on  a  log,  and  his  legs  chopped 
off  with  a  plantation  axe,  and  the  stumps  plunged  into  boiling 
pitch,  to  stanch  the  blood,  and  so  save  the  property/  from 
entire  destruction  ;  for  the  live  Torso  of  a  slave  miglit  serve 
as  a  warning.  No  action  of  a  court  was  requisite  to  inflict 
this  punishment ;  any  master  could  thus  mutilate  his  bond- 
man. Even  from  1830  to  184G,  it  was  common  for  owners 
to  beat  their  offending  victims  with  "  tamarind  rods  "  six  feet 


Theodore  Parker. 


81 


long  and  an  inch  in  thickness  at  the  bigger  end  —  rods  thick  set 
with  ugly  thorns.  "When  that  process  was  over,  the  lacerated 
back  was  washed  with  a  decoction  of  the  Manchineel,  a  poison 
tree,  Avhich  made  the  wounds  fester  and  long  remain  open. 

In  1846,  the  negroes  were  in  "  rebellion,"  and  took  posses- 
sion of  the  island  ;  they  were  25,000,  the  whites  3000.  But 
the  blacks  did  not  hurt  the  hair  of  a  white  man's  head ;  they 
got  their  fi-eedom,  but  they  took  no  revenge !  Suppose  25,000 
Americans,  held  in  bondage  by  3000  Algerines  on  a  little 
island,  should  get  their  masters  into  their  hands,  how  many 
of  the  3000  would  see  the  next  sun  go  down  ? 

No  doubt  it  is  through  the  absence  of  this  desire  of  natural 
vengeance,  that  the  Africans  have  been  reduced  to  bondage, 
and  kept  in  it. 

But  there  is  a  limit  even  to  the  necjrds  forbearance.  San 
Domingo  is  not  a  great  way  off.  The  revolution  which 
changed  its  black  inhabitants  from  tame  slaves  into  wild 
men,  took  place  after  you  had  ceased  to  call  yourself  a  boy. 

It  skotvs  what  may  he  in  America,  with  no  white  man  to 
help.  In  the  Slave  States  there  is  many  a  possible  San 
Domingo,  which  may  become  actual  any  day ;  and,  if  not  in 
18C0,  tlien  in  some  other  "year  of  our  Lord."  Besides, 
America  offers  more  than  any  other  country  to  excite  the 
slave  to  love  of  Liberty,  and  the  effort  for  it.  We  are  always 
talking  about  "Liberty,"  boasting  that  we  are  "the  freest 
people  in  the  world,"  declaring  that  "a  man  would  die,  rather 
than  be  a  slave."  AVe  continually  praise  our  Fathers  "  who 
fought  the  Revolution."  We  build  monuments  to  commemo- 
rate even  the  humblest  beginning  of  that  great  national  work. 
Once  a  year,  Ave  stop  all  ordinary  work,  and  give  up  a  whole 
day  to  the  noisiest  kind  of  rejoicing  for  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence. How  we  praise  the  "  champions  of  liberty  !"  How  we 
point  out  the  "  infamy  of  the  British  oppressors ! "  "  They 
would  make  om-  Fathers  slaves,"  say  we,  "and  we  slew  the 
oppressor —  Sic  semper  Tyrannis!" 


82 


Theodore  Parker. 


Do  you  suppose  this  Avill  fail  to  produce  its  eflfect  on  the 
black  man,  one  day  ?  The  South  must  either  give  up  keep- 
ing "Independence  Day,"  or  else  keep  it  in  a  little  more 
thorough  fashion.  Nor  is  this  all :  the  Southerners  are  con- 
tinually taunting  the  negroes  with  their  miserable  nature. 
"  You  are  only  half  human,"  say  they,  "  not  capable  of  free- 
dom." "Hay  is  good  for  horses,  not  for  hogs,"  said  the 
philosophic  American  who  now  "  represents  the  great  Democ- 
racy" at  the  court  of  Turin.  So,  liberty  is  good  for  white 
men,  not  for  negroes.  Have  they  souls  ?  I  don't  know  that 
—  non  mi  ricordo.  "  Contempt,"  says  the  proverb,  "  will  cut 
through  the  shell  of  the  tortoise."  Anid,  one  day,  even  the 
sluggish  African  will  wake  up  under  tlie  threefold  stimulus 
of  the  Fourth  of  July  cannon,  the  whip  of  the  slaveholder, 
and  the  sting  of  his  heartless  mockery.  Then,  if  "  oppression 
maketh  wise  men  mad,"  what  do  you  think  it  will  do  to 
African  slaves,  who  are  familiar  with  scenes  of  violence,  and 
all  manner  of  cruelty  ?  Still  more :  if  the  negroes  have  not 
general  power  of  mind,  or  instinctive  love  of  liberty,  equal  to 
the  whites,  they  are  much  our  superiors  in  power  of  cunning, 
and  in  contempt  for  death  —  rather  formidable  qualities  in  a 
servile  war.  There  already  have  been  several  risings  of 
slaves  in  this  century;  they  spread  fear  and  consternation. 
The  future  will  be  more  terrible.  Now,  in  case  of  an  insur- 
rection, not  only  is  there,  as  Jefferson  said,  "  no  attribute  of 
the  Almighty  "  which  can  take  sides  with  the  master,  but 
there  will  be  many  white  men  icho  rvill  take  part  with  the 
slave.  Men  like  the  Lafiiyettes  of  the  last  century,  and  the 
Dr.  Howes  of  this,  may  give  the  insurgent  negi'o  as  eifectual 
aid  as  that  once  rendered  to  America  and  Greece ;  and  the 
public  opinion  of  an  enlightened  world  will  rank  them  among 
its  heroes  of  noblest  mark. 

If  I  remember  rightly,  some  of  your  fathers  were  in  the 
battle  of  Li'xington,  and  that  at  Bunker  Hill.  I  believe,  in 
the  course  of  the  war  which  followed,  every  able-bodied  man 


Theodore  Parker. 


83 


in  your  town  (Newton)  was  in  actual  service.  Nowadays, 
their  descendants  are  pi-oud  of  the  fact.  One  day  it  will  be 
thought  not  less  heroic  for  a  negro  to  fight  for  his  personal 
liberty,  than  for  a  white  man  to  fight  for  political  independ- 
ence, and  against  a  tax  of  three  pence  a  pound  on  tea.  "Wait 
a  little,  and  things  will  come  round. 

III.  The  existence  of  Slavery  endangers  all  our  Demo- 
cratic institutions.  It  does  this  if  only  tolerated  as  an  excep- 
tional measure  —  a  matter  of  present  convenience,  and  still 
more  Avhen  proclaimed  as  an  instantial  principle,  a  rule  of 
political  conduct  for  all  time  and  every  place.  Look  at  this : 
In  1790,  there  were  (say)  300,000  slaves ;  soon  they  make 
their  first  doubling,  and  are  600,000;  then  their  second, 
1,200,000;  then  their  third,  2,400,000.  They  are  now  in 
the  process  of  doubling  the  fourth  time,  and  will  soon  be 
4,800,000 ;  then  comes  the  fifth  double,  9,600,000 ;  then  the 
sixth,  19,200,000.  Before  the  year  of  our  Lord  nineteen 
hundred,  there  v.ill  be  twenty  million  slaves! 

An  Anglo-Saxon  with  common  sense  does  not  like  this 
Africanization  of  America ;  he  wishes  the  superior  race  to 
multiply  rather  than  the  inferior.  Besides,  it  is  plain  to  a 
one-eyed  man  that  Slavery  is  an  irreconcilable  enemy  of  the 
progressive  development  of  Democracy;  that,  if  allowed  to 
exist,  it  mii?t  be  allowed  to  spread,  to  gain  political,  social, 
and  ecclesitioiical  power ;  and  all  that  it  gains  for  the  slave- 
holders is  just  so  much  taken  from  the  freemen. 

Look  at  this  !  —  there  are  twenty  Southern  representatives 
who  represent  nothing  but  property  in  man,  and  yet  their 
vote  counts  as  much  in  Congress  as  the  twenty  Northerners 
who  stand  for  the  will  of  1,800,000  freemen.  Slavery  gives 
the  South  the  same  advantage  in  the  choice  of  President; 
consequently  the  slaveholding  South  has  long  controlled  the 
federal  power  of  the  Nation. 

Look  at  the  recent  acts  of  the  Slave  Power !  The  Fugitive 
Slave  bill,  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 


84 


Theodore  Parker 


the  fiUibustering  against  Cuba,  (till  found  too  strong,)  and 
now  against  Mexico  and  other  feeble  neighbors,  and,  to  crown 
all,  the  actual  re-opening  of  the  African  slave-trade ! 

The  South  has  kidnapped  men  in  Boston,  and  made  the 
Judges  of  Massachusetts  go  under  her  symbolic  chain  to  enter 
the  Courts  of  Justice.  ( ! )  She  has  burned  houses  and  butch- 
ered innocent  men  in  Kansas,  and  the  perpetrators  of  that 
wickedness  Avere  rewarded  by  the  Federal  Government  with 
high  office  and  great  pay !  Those  things  are  notorious  ;  they 
have  stirred  up  some  little  indignation  at  the  North,  and  free- 
men begin  to  think  of  defending  their  liberty.  Hence  came 
the  Free-Soil  party,  and  hence  the  Republican  party ;  it  con- 
templates no  direct  benefit  to  the  slave,  only  tiie  defence  of 
the  white  man  in  his  national  rights,  or  his  conventional 
privileges.  It  will  grow  stronger  every  year,  and  r.lso  bolder. 
It  must  lay  down  principles  as  a  platform  to  work  its  meas- 
ures on ;  the  principles  will  be  found  to  require  much  more 
than  what  was  at  first  proposed,  and,  even  from  this  platform, 
Republicans  will  promptly  see  that  they  cannot  defend  the  nat- 
ural rights  of  freemen  withottt  destroying  that  Slacery  xohich 
takes  away  the  natural  rights  of  a  negro.  So,  first,  the  wise 
and  just  men  of  the  party  will  sympathize  with  such  as  seek 
to  liberate  the  slaves,  eitlier  peacefully  or  by  violence  ;  next, 
they  will  declare  their  opinions  in  public ;  and,  finally,  the 
Avhole  body  of  the  party  will  come  to  the  same  sympathy  and 
the  same  opinion.  Then,  of  course,  they  will  encourage  men 
like  Captain  Brown,  give  him  money  and  all  manner  of  help, 
and  also  encourage  the  slave?,  whenever  they  shall  rise,  to  take 
their  liberty  at  all  hazards.  When  called  to  help  put  down 
an  insurrection  of  the  slaves,  they  will  go  readily  enough, 
and  do  the  work  by  removing  the  cause  of  insurrection :  that 
is  —  by  destroying  Slavery  itself. 

An  Anti-Slavery  party,  under  one  name  or  another,  will 
before  long  control  the  Federal  Government,  and  will  exer- 
cise its  constitutional  rights,  and  perform  its  constitutional 


Theodore  Parker. 


8j: 


duty,  and  "guarantee  a  republican  form  of  government  to 
every  State  in  the  Union."  That  is  a  work  of  time  and 
peaceful  legislation.  But  the  short  work  of  violence  will  be 
often  tried,  and  each  attempt  will  gain  something  for  the 
cause  of  humanity,  even  by  its  dreadful  process  of  blood. 

IV.  But  there  is  yet  another  agency  that  will  act  against 
Slavery.^  There  are  many  mischievous  persons  who  are  ready 
for  any  wicked  woi'k  of  violence.  They  abound  in  the  City 
of  New  York,  (a  sort  of  sink  where  the  villany  of  botii  hemi- 
spheres settles  down,  and  genders  that  moral  pestilence  which 
steams  up  along  the  columns  of  The  New  York  Herald  and 
The  Nezo  York  Observer,  the  great  escape-pipes  of  secuhir  and 
ecclesiastical  wickedness;)  they  commit  the  great  crimes  of 
violence  and  robbery  at  home,  plunder  emigrants,  and  engage 
in  the  slave-trade,  or  venture  on  fiUibusfering  expeditions- 
This  class  of  persons  is  common  in  all  the  South.  One  of 
the  legitimate  products  of  her  "peculiar  institution,"  they  are 
familiar  with  violence,  ready  and  able  for  murder.  Public 
opinion  sustains  such  men.  Bully  Brooks  was  but  one  of 
their  representatives  in  Congress.  Nowadays  they  are  fond 
of  Slavery,  defend  it,  and  seek  to  spread  it.  But  the  time 
must  come  one  day  —  it  may  come  any  time  —  M'hen  tlie  lov- 
ers of  mischief  will  do  a  little  lillibustering  at  home,  and  rouse 
up  tiie  slaves  to  rob,  burn,  and  kill.  Prudent  carpenters 
sweep  up  all  the  shavings  in  their  shops  at  night,  and  remove 
this  food  of  conflagration  to  a  safe  place,  lest  the  spark  of  a 
candle,  the  end  of  a  cigar,  or  a  friction-match  should  swiftly 
end  their  wealth  slowly  gathered  together.  The  South  takes 
pains  to  strew  her  carpenter's  sliop  with  shavings,  and  fill  it 
full  thereof.  She  encourages  men  to  walk  abroad  with  naked 
candles  in  their  hands  and  lighted  cigars  in  their  mouths ; 
then  they  scatter  friction-matches  on  the  floor,  and  dance  a 
fillibustering  jig  thereon.  Slie  cries,  "  Well  done  !  Hurrah 
for  Walker ! "  '"  Huri-aii  for  Brooks !  "  "  Hurrah  for  the  bark 
"Wanderer  and  its  cargo  of  slaves  !  Up  with  the  bowie-knife  ! 
8 


86 


Theodore  Parker. 


Down  with  justice  and  humanity ! "  The  South  must  reap 
as  she  sows ;  where  she  scatters  the  wind  thie  whirlwind  will 
come  up.  It  will  be  a  pretty  crop  for  her  to  reap.  Within 
a  few  years  the  South  has  burned  alive  eight  or  ten 
negroes.  Other  black  men  looked  on,  and  learned  how  to 
fasten  the  chain,  how  to  pile  the  gi:een  wood,  how  to  set  this 
Hell-fire  of  Slavery  agoing.  The  apprentice  may  be  slow  to 
learn,  but  he  has  had  teaching  enough  by  this  time  to  know 
the  art  and  mystery  of  -torture ;  and,  depend  upon  it,  the 
negro  will  one  day  apply  it  to  his  old  tormentors.  The  Fire 
of  Vengeance  may  be  waked  up  even  in  an  African's  heart, 
especially  when  it  is  fanned  by  the  wickedness  of  a  white 
man :  then  it  runs  from  man  to  man,  from  town  to  town. 
What  shall  put  it  out  ?    The  white  men's  blood  ! 

Now,  Slavery  is  a  wickedness  so  vast  and  so  old,  so  rich 
and  so  respectable,  supported  by  the  State,  the  Press,  the 
Market,  and  the  Church,  that  all  those  agencies  are  needed  to 
oppose  it  with  —  those  and  many  more  which  I  cannot  speak 
of  now.  You  and  I  prefer  the  peaceful  method ;  but  I,  at 
least,  shall  welcome  the  violent  if  no  other  accomplish  the 
end.  So  will  the  great  mass  of  thoughtful  and  good  men  at  the 
North :  else  why  do  we  honor  the  Heroes  of  the  Revolution, 
and  build  them  monuments  all  over  our  blessed  New  Eng- 
land ?  I  think  you  gave  money  for  that  of  Bunker  Hill :  I 
once  thought  it  a  folly ;  now  I  recognize  it  as  a  great  sermon 
in  stone,  which  is  worth  not  only  all  the  money^it  cost  to  build 
it,  but  all  the  blood  it  took  to  lay  its  comer-stones.  Trust  me, 
its  lesson  will  not  be  in  vain  —  at  the  North,  I  mean ;  for  the 
Logic  op  Slavery  will  keep  the  South  on  its  lower  course, 
and  drive  it  on  more  swiftly  than  before.  Captain  Brown's 
expedition  was  a  failure,"  I  hear  it  said.  I  am  not  quite  sure 
of  that.  True,  it  kills  fifteen  men  by  sword  and  shot,  and 
four  or  five  men  by  the  gallows.  But  it  shows  the  weakness 
of  the  greatest  Slave  State  in  America,  the  worthlessness  of 
faer  soldiery,  and  the  utter  fear  which  Slavery  genders  in  the 


Theodore  Parker. 


87 


bosoms  of  the  masters.  Think  of  the  condition  of  the  City  of 
Washington,  while  Brown  was  at  work! 

Brown  will  die,  I  think,  like  a  martjT,  and  also  like  a  saint. 
His  noble  demeanor,  his  unflinching  bravery,  his  gentleness, 
his  calm,  religious  trust  in  God,  and  his  words  of  truth  and 
soberness,  cannot  fail  to  make  a  profound  impression  on  the 
hearts  of  Northern  men ;  yes,  and  on  Southern  men.  For 
"every  human  heart  is  huma:i,"  &c.  I  do  not  think  the 
money  wasted,  nor  the  lives  thrown  away.  Many  acorns 
must  be  sown  to  have  one  come  up ;  even  then  the  plant 
grows  slow ;  but  it  is  an  Oak  at  last.  None  of  the  Christian 
martyrs  died  in  vain;  and  from  Stephen,  who  was  stoned 
at  Jerusalem,  to  Mary  Dyer,  whom  our  fathers  hanged  on  a 
bough  of the  great  tree  "  on  Boston  Common,  I  think  there 
have  been  few  spirits  more  pure  and  devoted  than  John 
Brown's,  and  none  that  gave  up  their  breath  in  a  nobler 
cause.  Let  the  American  State  hang  his  body,  and  the 
American  Church  damn  his  soul ;  still,  the  blessing  of  such 
as  are  ready  to  perish  will  fliU  on  him,  and  the  universal  jus- 
tice of  the  Infinitely  Perfect  God  will  take  him  welcome 
home.  The  road  to  heaven  is  as  short  from  the  gallows  as 
from  a  throne  ;  perhaps,  also,  as  easy. 

I  suppose  you  would  like  to  know  something  about  myself. 
Rome  has  treated  me  to  bad  weather,  which  tells  its  story  in 
my  health,  and  certainly  does  not  mend  me.  But  I  look  for 
brighter  days  and  happier  nights.  The  sad  tidings  from 
America  —  my  friends  in  peril,  in  exile,  in  jail,  killed,  or  to 
be  hung — 'have  filled  me  with  grief,  and  so  I  fall  back  a 
little,  but  hope  to  get  forward  again.  God  bless  you  and 
yours,  and  comfort  you ! 

Ever  affectionately  yours, 

Theodore  Pabkeb. 

To  Francis  Jackson,  Esq.,  Boston. 


88 


Theodore  Parker. 


Rome,  December  24,  1859. 
What  a  stormy  time  you  are  having  in  America !  Your 
cradle  was  rocked  in  the  Revolution,  and  now  in  your  old 
age  you  see  the  storm  of  another  Revolution  beginning ;  none 
knows  when  and  where  it  shall  end.  Yesterday,  the  telegraph 
brought  us  the  expected  intelligence  that  the  Slaveholders  had 
hung  Captain  John  Brown !  Of  course  I  knew  from  the  mo- 
ment of  his  capture  what  his  fate  would  be ;  the  logic  of 
Slavery  is  stronger  than  the  intellect  or  personal  will  of  any 
man,  and  it  bears  all  Southern  politicians  along  with  it.  No 
martyr  whose  tragic  story  is  writ  in  the  Christian  books  ever 
bore  himself  raore  heroically  than  Captain  Brown ;  for  he 
was  not  only  a  martyr,  —  any  bully  can  be  that,  —  but  also  a 
Saint — which  no  bully  can  ever  be.  None  ever  fell  in  a 
raore  righteous  cause :  —  it  has  a  great  future,  too,  which  he 
has  helped  bring  nearer  and  make  more  certain.  I  confess  I 
am  surprised  to  find  love  for  the  man,  admiration  for  his  con- 
duct, and  sympathy  with  his  object,  so  wide-spread  in  the 
North,  especially  in  New  England,  and  more  particularly  in 
dear,  good,  old  Boston !  Think  of  the  Old  South  on  the  same 
platform  with  Emerson  and  Phillips  !  Think  of  sermons  like 
Wheelock's,  Newhall's,  Freeman  Clarke's,  and  Cheever's 
Thanksgiving  sermon  at  New  York  —  an  Orthodox  minister 
of  such  bulk  putting  John  Brown  before  Moses !    The  New 

York  Herald  had  an   extract  from   's  sermon.  It 

was  such  as  none  but  a  mean  soul  could  preach  on  such  an 
occasion  ;  but  we  must  remember  that  it  taxes  a  mean  man 
as  much  to  be  mean  and  little,  as  it  does  a  noble  one  to  be 
grand  and  generous.  Every  minister  must  bear  sermons  after 
his  kind ;  *'  for  of  a  thorn  men  do  not  gather  figs,  nor  of  a 
bramble-bush  gather  they  grapes."  I  rather  think  the  Cur- 
tises  did  not  fire  a  hundred  cannon  on  Boston  Common  when 
they  heard  that  John  Brown  was  hung,  as  they  did  when  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Bill  passed.  There  has  been  a  little  change 
since  1850,  and  nien  not  capable  of  repentance  are  yet  liable 


Theodore  Parker. 


89 


to  shame  —  and  if  they  cannot  be  converted,  may  yet  he 
scared. 

Well,  things  can  never  stand  as  they  did  three  months  ago. 
On  the  morning  of  the  19th  of  April,  1775,  at  day-break,  Old 
England  and  New  —  Great  Britain  smd  the  Thirteen  Colo- 
nies —  were  one  nation.  At  sunrise,  they  were  two.  The 
fire  of  the  grenadiers  made  reconciliation  impossible,  and  there 
must  be  war  and  separation.  It  is  so  now.  Great  events 
turn  on  small  hinges,  and  let  mankind  march  through.  How 
different  things  happen  from  what  we  fancy  !  All  good  insti- 
tutions are  founded  on  some  great  truth  of  the  mind  or  con- 
science ;  and,  when  such  a  truth  is  to  be  put  over  the  world's 
highway,  we  think  it  must  be  borne  forward  on  the  shoulders 
of  some  mighty  horse  whom  God  has  shod  strong  all  round 
for  that  special  purpose,  and  we  wonder  where  the  creature  is, 
and  when  he  will  be  road-ready ;  and  look  after  his  deep  foot- 
prints, and  listen  for  his  step  or  his  snorting.  But  it  some- 
times happens  that  the  Divine  Providence  uses  quite  humble 
cattle  to  bear  his  most  precious  burdens,  both  fast  and  far. 
Some  3000  or  4000  years  ago,  a  body  of  fugitives  —  slaves — ■ 
poor,  leprous,  ill-clad,  fled  out  of  Egypt,  under  the  guidance 
of  a  man  who  slew  an  Egyptian.  He  saw  a  man  do  a  vile 
thing  to  one  of  his  slaves,  and  lynched  him  on  the  spot  — 
then  ran  foi*  it. 

Those  fugitive  slaves  had  a  great  truth.  The  world,  I 
think,  had  not  known  before  "  The  Oneness  of  God ; "  —  at 
least,  their  leader  had  it,  and  for  hunidreds  of  years  did  this 
despised  people  keep  the  glorious  treasure  which  Egypt  did 
not  kno  /  —  v/hich  Greece  and  Rome  never  understood.  Who 
would  hfixe  thought  the  ark  of  such  salvation  would  have  been 
trusted  to  such  feeble  hands  ! 

Some  1800  or  1900  years  ago,  who  would  have  looked  to  a 
Jewish  carpenter  of  Galilee,  and  a  Jewish  tent-malier  of 
Tarsus  in  Cilicia,  with  few  adherents  —  fishermen  —  obscure 
people  —  unlearned  and  ignorant  men,  —  who  would  have 
8^ 


90 


Theodore  Parker. 


looked  to  such  persons  for  a  truth  of  religion  which  should 
overturn  all  the  temples  of  the  old  world,  and  drive  the  gods 
of  Olympus  from  their  time-honored  thrones  of  reverence  and 
power  ?  The  Rome  of  the  Popes  is,  no  doubt,  as  Polytheistic 
as  the  Rome  of  the  Ciesars  —  but  the  old  gods  are  gone,  and 
men  worship  the  Fisherman  and  the  Tent-maker. 

It  was  the  Augustinian  Monk  who  broke  the  Roman 
Hierarchy  to  atoms.  Tough  in  the  brains,  tough  in  the  bones, 
mighty  also  by  his  love  of  the  people  and  his  trust  in  God,  he 
did  what  it  seemed  only  the  great  councils  of  the  learned 
could  accomplish  —  he  routed  the  Popes,  and  wrested  the 
German  world  from  their  rude  and  bloody  gripe. 

At  a  later  day,  when  the  new  Continent  which  God  had 
kept  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  —  a  virgin  hid  away 
between  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific  seas  —  was  to  be  joined 
to  Humanity,  in  the  hopes  of  founding  such  a  Family  of  Men 
as  tlie  world  had  never  seen,  was  there  any  one  who  would 
have  thought  that  the  Puritan,  hated  in  his  British  home,  and 
driven  out  thence  with  fire  and  sword,  would  be  the  Repre- 
sentative of  Humanity,  and  claim  and  win  that  Bride,  and  wed 
her  too,  with  nuptii:iis  now  so  auspicious?  Yet  so  it  turns 
out ;  and  the  greatest  social  and  political  achievement  of  the 
human  race  is  wrought  out  by  that  Puritan,  with  his  Bride  — 
whose  only  dower  was  her  broad  lands.  Really,  it  seems  as 
if  God  chose  the  small  things  to  confound  the  great.  But 
when  we  look  again,  and  study  carefully  the  relation  which 
these  seemingly  insignificant  agents  bear  to  the  whole  force 
of  Humanity,  then  it  appears  they  were  the  very  agents  most 
fit  for  the  work  they  did.  I  think  it  will  turn  out  so  in  the 
case  of  Captain  Brown.  What  the  masterly  eloquence  of 
Seward  could  not  accomplish,  even  by  his  manly  appeal  to  the 
Higher  Law,  nor  the  eloquence  of  Phillips  and  Sumner, 
addressed  to  the  conscience  and  common  sense  of  the  people, 
seems  likely  to  be  brought  to  pass  by  John  Brown  —  no 
statesman,  no  orator,  but  an  upright  and  downright  man,  who 


Theodore  Parker. 


91 


took  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  said.  "  Slavery  shall  go  down 
even  if  ifc  be  put  down  with  red  swords  \ "  I  thanked  God 
for  John  Brown  years  ago :  he  and  I  are  no  strangers,  and 
still  more  now  his  sainthood  is  crowned  with  martyrdom.  I 
am  glad  he  came  from  that  Mayflower  company-: — that  his 
grandfather  was  a  captain  in  the  Revolutionary  war :  —  the 
true  aristocratic  blood  of  America  runs  in  such  veins.  All 
the  grand  institutions  of  America,  which  give  such  original 
power  to  the  people,  came  from  that  Puritan  stock,  who 
trusted  in  God,  and  kept  their  powder  dry — who  stood  up 
straight  when  they  prayed,  and  also  when  they  fought.  Yes, 
all  the  grand  original  ideas,  which  are  now  on  their  way  to 
found  new  institutions,  and  will  make  the  future  better  than 
the  past  or  present  —  they  come  from  the  same  source. 

Virginia  may  be  the  mother  of  Presidents,  (she  yet  keeps 
the  ashes  of  two  great  ones, — only  their  ashes,  not  their 
souls,)  but  it  is  New  England  that  is  mother  of  great  ideas. 
God  is  their  Father  —  mother  also  of  communities,  rich  with 
intelligence  and  democratic  power. 

John  Brown  came  from  a  good  lineage;  his  life  proves 
it  —  and  his  death.  It  is  not  for  you  or  me  to  select  the  in- 
struments wherewith  the  providence  of  mankind  has  the 
world's  work  done  by  human  hands ;  it  is  only  for  us  to  do 
our  little  duty,  and  take  the  good  and  ill  which  come  of  it. 

When  the  monster  which  hinders  the  progress  of  Humanity 
is  to  be  got  rid  of,  no  matter  if  the  battle-axe  have  rust  on  its 
hilt,  and  spots,  here  and  thei-e,  upon  its  blade  —  mementoes 
of  ancient  work ;  if  its  edge  have  but  the  power  to  bite,  the 
monster  shall  be  cloven  down,  and  mankind  walk  triumphantly 
on,  to-morrow,  to  fresh  work  and  triumphs  new. 

But  I  did  not  mean  to  write  you  such  a  letter  as  this  —  it 
wrote  itself,  and  I  could'nt  help  it.  I  cannot  sleep  nights,  for 
thinking  of  these  things.  I  am  ashamed  to  be  sick  and  good 
for  notliing  in  times  like  these,  but  can't  help  it,  and  must  be 
judged  by  what  I  can  do,  not  can't  and  don't. 


92 


Theodore  Parker. 


It  is  curious  to  find  the  slaves  volunteering  to  go  to  shoot 
men  (in  buckram)  Avho  are  coming  "  a  thousand  at  a  time,  to 
rescue  Captain  Brown " !  The  African  is  as  much  superior 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  cunning  and  arts  of  hypocrisy  —  except 
the  ecclesiastical  —  as  he  is  inferior"  in  general  power  of  mind. 
Didn't  a  negro  in  Savannah  tell  a  Northern  minister,  "  I  no 
want  to  be  free !  —  I  only  'fraid  to  be  slave  of  sin !  dat's  it, 
massa,  I's  fraid  of  de  Debil,  not  of  massa ! "  What  a  guffaw 
he  gave  when  with  his  countrymen  alone !  and  how  he  mim- 
icked the  gestures  of  the  South-side,  white-choked  priest,  who 
bore  "  his  great  commission  in  his  work  "  ! 

But  I  end  as  I  began  —  what  a  stormy  time  is  before  us  ! 
There  are  not  many  men  of  conscience  like  John  Brown,  but 
abundance  of  men  of  wrath ;  —  and  the  time  for  them  —  I 
know  not  when  it  is. 


Farewell ! 


V. 


Speech  of  Theodore  Tilton; 


I HAVE  listened  to  the  striking  of  your  city  bell !  "Who 
knows  but  it  marked  the  very  hour  and  moment  when 
the  gate  of  Heaven  was  opened,  and  the  spirit  of  a  new 
martyr  passed  in  !  To-day  the  nation  puts  to  death  its  noblest 
citizen  !  (Cheers  and  hisses.)  What  was  his  crime  ?  Guilty 
of  what  ?  Guilty  of  loving  his  fellow-men  too  well !  (Ap- 
plause and  hisses.)  Guilty  of  a  heart  of  too  great  human 
kindness !  Guilty  of  too  well  "  remembering  them  that  are  in 
bonds  as  bound  with  them  ! "  Has  the  brave  old  man  still  a 
few  moments  more  of  life  ?  Then,  though  he  cannot  hear  our 
words,  let  us  say,  "  God  bless  him,  and  farewell ! "  (Ap- 
plause and  hisses.)  But  if  the  last  sad  moment  is  already 
passed,  v.'hat  then  remains  ?  I  know  not  what  remains  for 
you,  but  as  for  me,  I  feel  lilce  tlirowing  roses  upon  that  scaffold 
and  that  coffin  !  (Mingled  applause  and  hisses,  which  con- 
tinued for  some  moments,  during  which  the  speaker  advanced 
to  the  edge  of  the  platform,  and  folded  his  arras.)  Honor ! 
thrice  honor  to  the  good  Christian  who  to-day  dies  in  the 
faith !  It  is  the  hour  not  of  his  defeat,  but  of  his  triumph ! 
Our  hearts  are  large  for  him  to-day ! 

But  what  can  I  say?  This  is  a  time  for  silence  rather  than 

*  Delivered  at  noon  of  the  2(1  of  Deeember,  at  a  public  meeting  of  the  friends  of 
Joba  Brown's  cnuse  in  I'liiludelpbia.  As  the  speiiker  rose  to  address  the  audience  the 
clock  struck  twelve. 

(93) 


94 


Theodore  Tilton. 


for  words.  We  are  standing  by  the  old  man's  open  grave, 
•waiting  for  his  body  to  be  buried.  "When  friends  gather  to- 
gether to  speak  of  a  good  man  who  has  departed,  every  one 
has  some  word  to  utter  which  is  peculiar  to  himself ;  some 
word  which  best  expresses  what  is  each  man's  most  grateful 
and  endearing  memory  of  him  who  has  gone.  My  own  trib- 
ute to  John  Brown,  which  I  offer  on  this  day  of  his  death,  is 
gratitude  for  the  influence  which  his  heroism,  his  fortitude, 
and  his  faith  have  exerted  upon  my  religious  life.  I  have 
been  made  a  better  Christian  by  that  man's  life  and  death. 
His  own  great  faith  has  strengthened  mine.  His  own  great 
courage  has  quickened  mine.  His  Christian  example  of  un- 
wavering heroism  and  patience  —  in  prison,  under  his  wounds, 
in  prospect  of  the  gallows  —  all  this  has  inspired  me  to  a 
higher  religious  life.  It  has  kindled  within  my  heart  a 
greater  love  to  God  and  to  my  fellow-men.  This  is  a  tribute 
to  his  memory  which  I  cannot  to-day  withhold. 

I  do  not  judge  him  merely  by  his  last  great  act.  John 
Brown  was  a  Christian  long  before  the  great  eye  of  the  world 
was  set  on  him  ;  for,  from  his  sixteenth  year  to  his  fifty-ninth, 
he  has  been  a  true  and  honored  member  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.  The  world  has  not  wat(;hed  all  that  long  career,  but 
it  has  seen  enough  in  a  few  days  in  his  prison  to  make  it 
wonder  and  admire. 

You  remember  how  he  received  the  Governor  of  Virginia. 
He  stood  in  his  presence  as  Paul  stood  before  Agrippa.  not 
wishing  to  exchange  places,  but  only  holding  out  his  hand  and 
saying,  "  I  would  that  thou  wert  altogether  as  I  am,  save  these 
bonds  1 "  (Applause.)  You  remember  how  he  received  his 
sentence.  When  the  Earl  of  Argyle  who,  witli  liis  own  hands 
put  upon  the  head  of  Charles  II.  the  crown  of  England,  was 
afterwards  condemned  to  death  by  the  same  king,  the  stern 
old  Presbyterian,  on  hearing  his  fate,  arose  in  court,  and 
said,  "The  king  honors  me  with  a  speedy  gratitude  ;  for  while 
I  helped  him  only  to  a  crown  which  must  shortly  perish,  he 


Theodore  Tilton. 


95 


hastens  me  to  a  crown  that  is  incorruptible,  and  that  fadeth 
not  away."  So  that  other  stern  old  Presbyterian,  who  dies 
this  day  in  Virginia,  arose  in  court  and  uttered  a  speech  of 
equal  heroism  and  moral  grandeur  —  a  speech  that  will  go 
down  to  the  end  of  time  with  all  the  grand  words  of  all  the 
world's  heroes.    (Applause  and  hisses.) 

I  cannot  look  upon  his  steadfastness  without  first  marvelling, 
and  then  thanking  God.  John  Brown  was  a  Puritan  —  the 
sixth  in  descent  from  the  band  of  Pilgrims  who  stepped  on 
Plymouth  Rock.  I  think  of  him  and  go  back  to  old  Bishop 
Hooper  of  English  history  —  the  first  Puritan,  the  father  of  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  —  who,  wherf  he  was  condemned  to  death  for 
conscience'  sake,  wrote  in  his  cell  at  Newgate,  "  I  have  spoken 
the  truth  with  my  lips ;  I  have  written  it  with  my  pen ;  I  am 
ready  to  confirm  it,  by  God's  grace,  with  my  blood  ! "  John 
Brown's  letters,  written  in  his  cell  at  Charlestown,  bear  in 
every  line  the  same  heroic  testimony  to  God's  truth  !  (Ap- 
plause, mingled  with  loud  hisses.)  It  is  this  high  and  grand 
faith  in  God  that  has  sustained  him  in  the  long  hours  of  his 
imprisonment,  from  its  beginning  until  to-day  that  now  ends  it. 

I  have  no  fear  how  he  mounted  that  scaffold.  I  have 
heard  no  news,  but  I  believe  in  my  soul  that  when  the  tele- 
graph shall  flash  the  story,  it  will  tell  of  no  faltering,  no 
tremulous  step,  no  recantation  —  nothing  but  faith,  constancy, 
cheerfulness,  heroism !  When  the  great  Blarquis  of  Montrose, 
who  suffered  in  Scotland  for  the  cause  of  Church  and  King, 
was  led  to  execution,  it  was  a  day  of  dark  skies  and  threat- 
ening storms,  but  as  he  approached  the  scaffold  the  sun  for  a 
moment  broke  through  the  clouds  and  shone  full  upon  his 
head  —  as  if  the  Divine  glory  had  come  to  crown  the  saint 
before  the  martyr !  And  he  mounted  the  ladder,  as  if  it  had 
been  the  ladder  which  Jacob  saw,  and  walked  straightway  up 
into  Heaven.  So  to-day,  amid  the  greater  clouds  and  shadows 
that  have  fallen  upon  our  sad  hearts,  I  believe  that  a  light 
brighter  than  the  sun  has  shone  upon  the  old  man  who  has 


95 


Theodore  Tilton. 


this  day  gone  to  the  gallows,  and  that,  as  he  looked  up  for  the 
last  time  toward  the  heavens  over  his  head,— - 

•*  God's  glory  smote  him  on  the  face ! " 

(Cheers  and  hisses.) 

He  died  no  dishonorable  death.  Did  you  notice,  in  his  late 
letter,  which  Dr.  Furness  I'ead,  the  little  line  to  his  wife, 
"  Think  not  that  any  ignomy  has  fallen  upon  you  or  upon 
your  children,  because  I  have  come  to  the  scaffold ! "  Ah ! 
the  scaffold  is  sometimes  a  throne  greater  than  a  king's. 
They  who  suffer  upon  it  rule  the  world  more  than  emperors ! 

You  heard  Mr.  Hale's  lecture  last  night.  He  said, "  The 
highest  province  of  history  is  to  vindicate  a  good  man  from 
obloquy  and  reproach."  To  that  impartial  history  which 
vindicates  the  martyrs  and  turns  their  martyrdom  into  glory, 
we  commend  to-day  the  name  and  memory  of  the  martyr, 
John  Brown !  (Applause  and  hisses.)  The  deed  of  this  day 
will  not  die  !  It  will  live  in  history  as  long  as  there  shall  be 
a  history  for  heroes!  Said  Latimer  to  Ridley,  when  the 
blaze  of  martyrdom  was  wrapping  them  both  around  like  a 
garment,  "  Be  of  good  comfort,  Master  Ridley ;  we  have  this 
day  lighted  a  candle  in  England  which,  by  God's  grace,  no 
man  shall  ever  put  out."  To-day  God  looks  down  from 
heaven  on  a  martyrdom  whose  light  shall  shine  over  the 
world  brighter  than  any  blazing  fire  that  ever  gilded  fagot 
or  stake  !  Tliis  scaffold  in  Virginia  shall  stand  as  long  as  the 
world  shall  stand !  No  man  can  ever  strike  it  down,  or  put 
it  away !  It  will  abide  forever,  as  the  monument  of  a  Cln-is- 
tian  man  who  lived  a  hero  and  died  a  martyr,  and  whose 
name,  to-day  bequeathed  to  history,  shall  go  down  through 
the  world  gathering  increasing  honor  through  all  coming  time ! 
(Great  clapping  and  hissing.)  I  recall  at  this  hour  of  noon 
those  beautiful  words  of  the  New  Testament,  in  the  story  of 
Saul,  the  persecutor  of  the  prophets,  struck  down  on  his  way 


Theodore  Tilton. 


97 


to  Damascus  —  "  -At  midday,  0  ling,  I  saw  in  the  way  a  light 
from  Heaven  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun !  "  He  fell  to 
the  ground,  blinded  and  terrified !  lie  rose  to  his  feet,  con- 
verted and  transformed !  I  pray  God  that  at  this  hour  of 
midday,  at  this  solemn  and  awful  moment  of  death,  this  nation 
may  be  struck  down  upon  its  knees,  by  the  sudden  glory  of 
God  bursting  out  of  Heaven — and  that  it  may  be  humbled 
in  the  dust  until  it  shall  rise  repentant,  and  the  scales  shall 
fall  fi'om  its  eyes,  and  the  whole  nation  shall  stand  at  last  in 
the  light  and  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God !  (Applause  and 
hisses,  during  which  Mr.  Tilton  took  his  seat.) 


"With  a  Rose, 


That  Bloomed  on  the  Pay  of  John  Brown^s  Martyrdom. 

In  tho  long  silence  of  tho  nigbt, 

Nature's  benignant  power 
Woke  aspirations  for  tlio  light 

"Witbin  the  folded  flower. 
Its  presence  and  the  gracious  day 

Made  summer  in  the  room, 
But  woman's  eyes  shed  tender  de\r 

On  the  little  rose  in  bloom. 

Then  blosvomcd  forth  a  grander  flower. 

In  the  wilderness  of  wrong, 
Untouched  by  Slavery's  bitter  frost, 

A  soul  devout  and  strong. 
Ood-watcbed,  that  century  plant  uprose^ 

Far  shining  through  the  gloom. 
Filling  a  nation  with  tiie  breath 

Of  a  noble  life  in  bloom. 

A  life  BO  powerful  in  Its  truth, 

A  nature  so  complote ; 
It  conquered  ruler,  judge  and  priest. 

And  held  them  at  its  feet. 
Death  seemed  proud  to  take  a  soul 

So  beautifully  given, 
And  the  gallows  only  proved  to  him 

A  stepping-stone  to  heaven. 

Each  cheerful   ord,  each  valiant  act. 

So  simple,  so  sublime, 
Spoke  to  us  through  the  reverent  hush 

Which  sanctified  that  time. 
That  moment  when  the  brave  old  man 

Went  so  serenely  forth. 
With  footsteps  whose  unfaltering  tread 

Iteechoed  through  the  North. 

The  sword  be  wielded  for  the  right 

Turns  to  a  victor's  palm ; 
His  memory  sounds  forever  more, 

A  spirit-stirring  psalm. 
No  breath  of  shame  can  touch  his  shield. 

Nor  ages  dim  its  shine ; 
Living,  he  made  life  beautiful,  — 

Dying,  made  death  divine. 

No  monument  of  quarried  stono, 

No  eloquence  of  speech, 
Can  grave  the  lessons  on  the  lacd 

Ilis  martyrdom  will  teach. 
No  eulogy  like  his  own  words, 

With  hero-spirit  rife, 
"  I  truly  serve  tho  cause  I  love. 

By  yielding  up  my  life." 


VI. 


Letters  of  Victor  Hugo. 


Hacteville  House,  Dec.  2,  1859. 


IR :  "When  one  thinks  of  the  United  States  of  America,  a 


Kj  majestic  figure  rises  to  the  mind — Washington.  Now,  in 
that  country  of  Washington,  see  what  is  going  on  at  this  hour ! 

There  are  slaves  in  the  Southern  States,  a  fact  which 
strikes  with  indignation,  as  the  most  monstrous  of  contra- 
dictions, the  reasonable  and  freer  conscience  of  the  Northern 
States.  Tiiese  slaves,  these  negroes,  a  white  man,  a  free  man, 
one  John  Brown,  wanted  to  deliver.  Certainly,  if  insurrec- 
tion be  ever  a  sacred  duty,  it  is  against  Slavery.  Brown 
wished  to  begin  the  good  work  by  the  deliverance  of  the 
slaves  in  Virginia.  Being  a  Puritan,  a  religious  and  austere 
man,  and  full  of  the  Gospel,  he  cried  aloud  to  these  men  — 
his  brothers  —  the  cry  of  emancipation  "  Christ  has  set  us 
free  ! "  The  slaves,  enervated  by  Slavery,  made  no  response 
to  his  appeal  —  Slavery  makes  deafness  in  the  soul.  Brown, 
finding  himself  abandoned,  fought  with  a  handful  of  heroic 
men  ;  he  struggled ;  he  fell,  riddled  with  bullets ;  his  two 
young  sons,  martyrs  of  a  holy  cause,  dead  at  his  side.  This  is 
what  is  called  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair. 

John  Brown,  taken  prisoner,  has  just  been  tried,  with  four 
of  his  fellows  —  Stephens,  Coppoc,  Green,  and  Copeland. 
What  sort  of  trial  it  was,  a  word  will  tell. 

Brown,  stretched  upon  a  truckle  bed,  with  six  half-closed 

(99) 


iOO 


Victor  Hugo. 


wounds  —  a  gun-shot  wound  in  his  arm,  one  in  his  loins,  two 
in  the  chest,  two  in  the  head — almost  bereft  of  hearing, 
bleeding  through  his  mattress,  the  .-pirits  of  his  two  dead  sons 
attending  him ;  his  four  fellow-prisoners  crawling  around 
him  ;  Stephens  with  four  sabre  wounds ;  ''Justice  "  in  a  huny 
to  have  done  with  the  case ;  an  attorney,  Hunter,  demanding 
that  it  be  despatched  with  sharp  speed ;  a  Judge,  Parker, 
assenting ;  the  defence  cut  short ;  scarcely  any  delay  allowed ; 
forged  or  garbled  documents  put  in  evidence ;  the  witnesses 
for  tlie  prisoner  shut  out;  the  defence  clogged;  two  guns, 
loaded  with  grape,  brought  into  the  court,  with  an  order  to  the 
jailers  to  shoot  the  prisoners  in  case  of  an  attempt  at  rescue ; 
forty  minutes'  deliberation ;  three  sentences  to  death.  I  atlirm, 
on  my  honor,  that  all  this  took  place,  not  in  Turkey,  but  in 
America. 

Such  things  are  not  done  with  impunity  in  the  face  of  the 
civilized  world.  The  universal  conscience  of  mankind  is  an 
ever- watchful  eye.  Let  the  Judge  of  Charlestown,  and 
Hunter,  and  Parker,  and  the  slave-holding  jurors,  and  the 
whole  population  of  Virginia,  ponder  it  well :  they  are  seen ! 
They  are  not  alone  in  the  world.  At  this  moment  the  gaze 
of  Europe  is  fixed  on  America. 

John  Brown,  condemned  to  die,  was  to  have  been  hanged 
on  the  2d  of  December  —  this  very  day.  But  news  has  this 
instant  reached  us.  A  respite  is  granted  him.  It  is  not  until 
the  16th  that  lie  is  to  die.  The  interval  is  short.  Has  a  cry 
of  mercy  time  to  make  itself  heard  ?  No  matter.  It  is  a 
duty  to  lift  up  the  voice. 

Perhaps  a  second  respite  may  be  granted.  America  is  a 
noble  land.  The  sentiment  of  humanity  is  soon  quickened 
among  a  free  people.  "We  hope  that  Brown  may  be  saved. 
If  it  were  otherwise  —  if  Brown  should  die  on  the  scalFoId  on 
the  16th  of  December  —  what  a  terrible  calamity! 

The  executioner  of  Brown  —  let  us  avow  it  openly  (for  the 
day  of  the  kings  is  past,  and  the  day  of  the  people  dawns,  and 


Victor  Hugo. 


lOl 


to  the  people  we  are  bound  frankly  to  speak  the  truth)  — the 
executioner  of  Brown  would  be  neither  the  Attorney  Hunter, 
nor  the  Judge  Pai'ker,  nor  the  Governor  "Wise,  nor  the  State 
of  Virginia ;  it  would  be,  we  say  it,  and  we  think  it  with  a 
shudder,  the  whole  American  Republic. 

The  more  one  loves,  the  more  one  admires,  the  more  one 
reveres  the  Kepublic,  the  more  heart-sick  one  feels  at  such  a 
catastrophe.  A  single  State  ought  not  to  have  the  power  to 
dishonor  all  the  rest,  and  in  this  cai^e  federal  intervention  is  a 
clear  right.  Otherwise,  by  hesitating  to  interfere  when  it 
might  prevent  a  crime,  the  Union  becomes  an  accomplice. 
No  matter  how  intense  may  be  the  indignation  of  the  gener- 
ous Northern  States,  the  Southern  States  associate  them  with 
the  disgrace  of  this  murder.  All  of  us,  whosoever  we  may 
be  —  for  whom  the  democratic  cause  is  a  common  country-— 
feel  ourselves  iii  a  manner  compromised  and  hurt.  If  the 
scaffold  should  be  erected  on  the  Kith  of  December,  the  incor- 
ruptible voices  of  history  would  thenceforward  testify  that  the 
august  confederation  of  the  New  "World  had  added  to  all  its 
ties  of  holy  brotherhood  a  brotherhood  of  blood,  and  the  fasces 
of  that  splendid  Republic  would  be  bound  together  with  the 
running  noose  that  hung  from  the  gibbet  of  Bro\Mi. 

This  is  a  bond  that  kills. 

When  we  reflect  on  what  Brown,  the  liberator,  the  cham- 
pion of  Christ,  has  striven  to  eli'ect,  and  when  we  remember 
that  he  is  about  to  die,  slaughtered  by  the  American  Repub- 
lic, the  crime  assumes  the  proportions  of  the  Nation  which 
commits  it;  and  when  we  say  to  ourselves  that  this  Nation  is 
a  glory  of  the  human  race  ;  that  —  like  France,  like  England, 
like  Germany — she  is  one  of  the  organs  of  civilization  j  that 
she  sometimes  even  out-marches  Europe  by  the  sublime 
audacity  of  her  progress ;  that  she  is  the  queen  of  an  entire 
world ;  and  that  she  bears  on  her  brow  an  immense  light  of 
freedom;  we  affirm  that  John  Brown  will  not  die;  for  we 
recoil,  horror-struck,  from  the  idea  of  so  great  a  prime  com^ 

juitted  by  so  great  a  People. 
9* 


102 


Victor  Hugo. 


In  a  political  light,  the  murder  of  Brown  would  be  an 
irreparable  fault.  It  would  penetrate  the  Union  with  a  secret 
fissure,  which  would  in  the  end  tear  it  asunder.  It  is  possible 
that  the  execution  of  Brown  might  consolidate  Slavery  in 
Virginia,  but  it  is  certain  that  it  would  convulse  the  entire 
American  Democracy.  Tou  preserve  your  shame,  but  you 
sacrifice  your  glory. 

In  a  moral  light,  it  seems  to  me,  that  a  portion  of  the  light 
of  humanity  would  be  eclipsed ;  that  even  the  idea  of  justice 
and  injustice  Avould  be  obscured  on  the  day  which  should 
■witness  the  assassination  of  Emancipation  by  Liberty. 

As  for  myself,  though  I  am  but  an  atom,  yet  being,  as  I 
am,  in  common  with  all  other  men,  inspired  with  the  con- 
science of  humanity,  I  kneel  in  tears  before  the  great  starry 
banner  of  the  New  World,  and  with  clasped  hands,  and  with 
profound  and  filial  respect,  I  implore  the  illustrious  American 
Republic,  sister  of  the  French  Republic,  to  look  to  the  safety 
of  the  universal  moral  law,  to  save  Brown ;  to  throw  down  the 
threatening  scaffold  of  the  1 6th  December,  and  not  to  suffer 
that,  beneath  its  eyes,  and,  I  add,  with  a  shudder,  almost  by 
its  fault,  the  first  fratricide  be  outdone. 

For  — yes,  let  America  know  it,  and  ponder  it  well — there 
is  something  more  terrible  than  Cain  slaying  Abel — it  is 
"Washington  slaying  Spartacus. 

Victor  Hugo. 

To  THE  EdITOB  of  THE  LONDON  NeWS. 


The  views  of  this  eloquent  friend  of  Freedom,  in  Europe, 
on  the  Great  Crime  of  America,  which,  we  are  daily  told,  the 
Federal  Constitution  protect?,  —  that  cowardly  and  stupen- 
dous iniquity,  which  our  politicians  enphoncously  designate 
"  the  Domestic  Institution  of  our  Southern  brethren  "  —  were 
thus  clearly  stated  in  letter  to  Mrs.  Maria  Weston  Chap- 
man, in  1851 : 


Victor  Hugo. 


103 


Paeis,  6th  July,  1851. 
Madame  :  I  have  scarcely  any  thing  to  add  to  your 
letter.    I  would  cheerfully  sign  every  line  of  it.  Pursue 
your  holy  work.    You  have  with  you  all  great  souls  and  all 
good  hearts. 

You  are  pleased  to  believe,  and  to  assure  me,  that  my 
voice,  in  this  august  cause  of  liberty,  will  be  listened  to  by  the 
great  American  people,  whom  I  love  so  profoundly,  and 
whose  destinies,  I  am  fain  to  think,  are  closelj'^  linked  with 
the  mission  of  France.    You  desire  me  to  lift  up  my  voice. 

I  will  do  it  at  once,  and  I  will  do  it  on  all  occasions.  I 
agree  with  you  in  thinking,  that,  within  a  definite  time  —  that 
within  a  time  not  distant — the  United  States  will  repudiate 
Slavery  with  horror  1  Slavery  in  such  a  country !  Can  there 
be  an  incongruity  more  monstrous  ?  Barbarism  installed  in 
the  very  heart  of  a  country,  which  is  itself  the  affirmation  of 
Civilization ;  liberty  wearing  a  chain ;  blasphemy  echoing 
from  the  altar ;  the  collar  of  the  negro  chained  to  the  pedestal 
of  Washington !  It  is  a  thing  unheard  of.  I  say  more ;  it  is 
impossible.  Such  a  spectacle  would  destroy  itself.  The 
light  of  the  nineteenth  century  alone  is  enough  to  destroy  it. 

Wh.at !  Slavery  sanctioned,  by  law,  among  that  illustrious 
people,  who  for  seventy  years  have  measured  the  progress  of 
civilization  by  their  march,  demonstrated  Democracy  by  their 
power,  and  liberty  by  their  prosperity !  Slavery  in  the 
United  States  !  It  is  the  duty  of  this  Republic  to  set  such  a 
bad  example  no  longer.  It  is  a  shame,  and  she  was  never 
born  to  bow  her  head. 

It  is  not  when  Slavery  is  taking  leave  of  old  nations,  that  it 
should  be  received  by  the  new.  "What !  When  Slavery  is 
departing  from  Turkey,  shall  it  rest  in  America  ?  What ! 
Drive  it  from  the  hearth  of  Omar,  and  adopt  it  at  the  hearth 
of  Franklin !    No !  No !   No ! 

There  is  an  inflexible  logic  which  develops  more  or  less 
slowly,  which  fashions,  which  redresses  according  to  a  rays- 


Victor  Hugo. 


terious  plan,  perceptible  only  to  great  spirits,  the  facts,  the 
men,  the  laws,  the  morals,  the  people ;  or  better,  under  all 
human  things,  there  are  things  divine. 

Let  all  those  great  souls  "who  love  the  United  States,  as  a 
country,  be  re-assured.  The  United  States  must  renounce 
Slavery,  or  they  must  renounce  Liberty.  They  cannot  re- 
nounce Liberty.  They  must  renounce  Slavery,  or  renounce 
the  Gospel.    They  will  never  renounce  the  Gospel. 

Accept,  Madame,  with  my  devotion  to  the  cause  you 
advocate,  the  homage  of  my  respect- 

Victor  Hugo. 


VII. 


Wendell  Phillips  on  the  Puritan  Principle.* 


_L   Servetus  ;  but  the  Puritans,  or  at  least,  their  immediate 
descendants,  hung  the  witches;  George  "Washington  held 
slaves ;  and  wherever  you  go  up  and  down  history,  you  find 
men,  not  angels.    Of  course,  you  find  imperfect  men ;  but  you 
find  great  men ;  men  who  have  marked  their  own  age,  and 
moulded  the  succeeding ;  men  to  whose  might,  daring,  and  to 
whose  disinterested  suffering  for  those  about  them,  the  suc- 
ceeding generations  owe  the  larger  share  of  their  blessings ; 
men  whose  lips  and  lives  God  has  made  the  channel  through 
which  his  choicest  gifts  come  to  their  fellow-beings.  John 
Calvin  Avas  one  of  these  —  perhaps  the  profoundest  intellect 
of  his  day ;  certainly,  one  of  the  largest  statesmen  of  his 
generation.    His  was  the  statesmanlike  mind  that  organized 
Puritanism,  tliat  put  ideas  into  the  shape  of  institutions,  and 
in  that  way  organized  victory,  when,  under  Loyola,  Cathol- 
icism, availing  itself  of  the  shrewdest  and  keenest  machinery, 
made  its  reactive  assault  upon  the  new  idea  of  the  Protestant 
religion.    If  in  that  struggle  Western  Europe  came  out  vic- 
torious, we  owe  it  more  to  the  statesmanship  of  Calvin  than 
to  the  large  German  heart  of  Luther.    "We  owe  to  Calvin  — 
at  least  it  is  not  unfair  to  claim,  nor  improbable  in  the  sequence 

*  A  Discourse  deltverod  befure  the  Twpnt}--eiglitli  Congregational  Society,  (Rer. 
Tbcodore  Paricei-'s,)  in  the  Muaic  Uall,  Boston,  ou  Sunday,  December  18, 1850. 


To  be  sure,  he  burned 


io6 


Wendell  Phillips. 


of  events  to  suppose,  that  a  large  share  of  those  most  eminent 
and  excellent  characteristics  of  Jsew  England,  which  have 
made  her  what  she  is,  and  saved  her  for  the  future,  came  from 
the  brain  of  John  Calvin. 

Luther's  biography  is  to  be  read  in  books.  The  plodding 
patience  of  the  German  intellect  has  gathered  up  every  trait 
and  every  trifle  —  the  minutest  —  of  his  life,  and  you  may 
read  it  spread  out  with  loving  admiration  on  a  thousand  pages 
of  biography.  Calvin's  life  is  written,  in  Scotland  and  New 
England,  in  the  triumphs  of  the  people  against  priestcraft  and 
power.  To  him,  more  than  to  any  other  man,  the  Puritans 
owed  Republicanism  —  the  Republicanism  of  the  Church. 
The  instinct  of  his  own  day  recognized  that  clearly  —  dis- 
tinguishinjj  this  element  of  Calvinism.  You  see  it  in  the  wit 
of  Charles  the  Second,  when  he  said,  "  Calvinism  is  a  religion 
unfit  for  a  gentleman."  It  was  unfit  for  a  gentleman  of  that 
day;  for  it  was  a  religion  of  the  people.  It  recognized  —  first 
since  the  earliest  centuries  of  Christianity  —  that  tlie  heart  of 
God  beats  through  every  lunnan  heart,  and  that  when  you 
mass  up  the  millions,  with  their  instinctive,  fair-play  sense  of 
right,  and  their  devotional  impulses,  you  get  nearer  God's 
heart  than  from  the  second-hand  scholarship  and  conservative 
tendency  of  what  are  called  the  thoughtful  and  educated 
classes.    "We  owe  this  element,  good  or  bad,  to  Calvinism. 

Then  we  owe  to  it  a  second  element,  marking  the  Puritans 
most  largely,  and  that  is  —  action.  Tlie  Puritan  was  not  a 
man  of  speculation.  He  originated  nothing.  His  principles 
are  to  be  found  broadcast  in  the  centuries  behind  him.  His 
speculations  were  all  old.  You  might  find  them  in  the  lec- 
tures of  Abelard ;  you  meet  with  them  in  the  radicalism  of 
Wat  Tyler ;  you  find  them  all  over  the  continent  of  Europe. 
The  distinction  between  his  case  and  that  of  others  was,  simply, 
that  he  practiced  what  he  believed.  .  He  believed  God.  •  He 
actuallf/  believed  him,  just  as  much  as  if  he  saw  demonsti'ated 
before  his  eyes  the  truth  of  the  principle.    For  it  is  a  very 


Wendell  Phillips. 


easy  thing  to  say  ;  the  difficulty  is  to  do.  If  you  tell  a  man  the 
absolute  truth,  that  if  he  will  plunge  into  the  ocean,  and  only 
keep  his  eyes  fixed  on  heaven,  he  will  never  sink  —  you  can 
demonstrate  it  to  him  —  you  can  prove  it  to  him  by  weight  and 
measure  —  each  man  of  a  thousand  will  believe  you,  as  they 
say;  and  then  they  will  plunge  into  the  water,  and  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  will  throw  up  their  arms  to  clasp 
some  straw  or  neighbor,  and  sink  5  the  thousandth  will  keep 
his  hands  by  his  body,  believing  God,  and  iloat  —  and  he  is 
the  Puritan.  Every  other  man  wants  to  get  hold  of  some- 
thing to  stay  himself ;  not  on  faith  in  God's  eternal  principle 
of  natural  or  re'igious  law,  but  on  his  neighbor;  he  wants  to 
lean  on  somebc  Jy ;  he  wants  to  catch  hold  of  something.  The 
Puritan  puts  his  hands  to  his  side  and  his  eyes  upon  heaven, 
and  floats  down  the  centuries  —  Faith  personified. 

These  two  elements  of  Puritanism  are,  it  seems  to  me,  those 
which  have  made  New  England  what  she  is.  You  see  them 
every  where  developing  into  institutions.  For  instiance,  if 
there  is  any  thing  that  makes  us,  and  that  made  Scotland,  it  is 
common  schools.  We  got  them  from  Geneva.  Luther  said, 
"  A  wicked  tyrant  is  better  than  a  wicked  war."  It  was  the 
essence  of  aristocracy :  "  Better  submit  to  any  evil  from  above 
than  trust  the  masses."  Calvin  no  sooner  set  his  foot  in  Ge- 
neva than  he  organized  the  people  into  a  constituent  element 
of  public  affairs.  He  planted  education  at  the  root  of  the 
Republic.  The  Puritans  borrowed  it  in  Holland,  and  brought 
it  to  New  England,  and  it  is  the  sheet-anchor  that  has  held  us 
amid  the  storms  and  the  temptations  of  two  hundred  years. 
We  have  a  people  that  can  think ;  a  people  that  can  read ; 
and  out  of  the  millions  of  refuse  lumber,  God  selects  one  in  a 
generation,  and  he  is  enough  to  save  a  State.  One  man  that 
thinks  for  himself  is  the  salt  of  a  generation  poisoned  with 
printing  ink  or  cotton  dust.  The  Puritans  scattered  broadcast 
the  seeds  of  thought.  They  knew  it  was  an  error,  in  counting 
Tip  the  population,  to  speak  of  a  million  of  souls  because  there 


io8  Wendell  Phillips. 

were  a  million  of  bodies  —  as  if  every  man  carried  a  soul !  — - 
but  they  knew,  trusting  the  mercy  of  God,  that  by  educating 
all,  the  martyrs  and  the  saints  —  that  do  not  travel  in  bat- 
talions, nor  ever  come  to  us  in  regiments,  but  come  alone,  now 
and  then  one  —  would  be  x'eached  and  unfolded,  and  save  their 
own  times.  Puritanism,  therefore,  is  action  ;  it  is  imperson- 
ating ideas ;  it  is  distrusting  and  being  willing  to  shake  ofti  at 
fitting  times,  what  are  called  institutions.  They  were  above 
words ;  they  went  out  into  the  wilderness,  outside  of  forms. 
The  consequence  was  that,  throughout  their  whole  history, 
there  is  the  most  daring  confidence  in  being  substantially  right. 
They  asked  not  of  safety;  they  never  were  frightened  by 
appearances ;  they  did  the  substantially  right  thing,  and  left 
the  statesmen  of  a  hundred  years  after,  at  a  safe  distance,  to 
find  out  the  reasons  why  they  were  right.  The  consequence 
is  that,  when  conservatism  comes  together  to-day,  whether  in 
the  form  of  a  Union  meeting  "  —  dead  men  turning  in  their 
graves  and  pretending  to  be  alive  —  whether  it  be  in  this 
form  or  any  other,  its  occupation  is  to  explain  how,  a  hundred 
years  ago,  the  course  taken  was  right,  and  not  to  see  the 
reflection  of  a  hundred  years  ago  staring  them  in  the  face 
to-day.  Like  the  sitting  figure  on  our  coin,  they  are  look- 
ing back  —  they  have  no  eyes  for  the  future.  The  souls  that 
God  touches  have  their  brows  gilded  by  the  dawn  of  the 
future.  A  man  present  at  tlie  glorious  martyrdom  of  the  2d 
of  December,  said  of  the  hero-saint  who  marched  out  of 
the  jail,  "  He  seemed  to  come,  his  brow  radiant  with  triumph." 
It  was  the  dawn  of  a  future  day  that  gilded  his  brow.  He 
was  high  enough,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  catch,  earlier 
than  the  present  generation,  the  dawn  of  the  day  that  he 
to  inaugurate. 

This  is  my  idea  of  Puritan  principles.  Nothing  new  in 
them.  How  are  we  to  vindicate  them  ?  Eminent  historians 
and  patriots  have  told  us  that  the  pens  of  the  Puritans  are 
their  best  ^vitnesse3.    It  does  not  seem  to  me  eo.    We  are 


Wendell  Phillips. 


109 


their  witnesses.  If  they  lived  to  any  purpose,  they  produced 
a  generation  better  than  themselves.  The  true  man  always 
makes  himself  to  be  outdone  by  his  child.  The  vindicatirn 
of  Puritanism  is  a  New  England  bound  to  be  better  than 
Puritanism ;  bound  to  look  back  and  see  its  faults  and  meefc 
the  exigencies  of  the  present  day,  not  with  stupid  imitation, 
but  with  that  essential  disinterestedness,  that  faith  in  right  and 
God,  with  whicli  they  met  the  exigencies  of  their  time.  Take 
an  illustration.  When  our  fathers  stood  in  London,  under  the 
corporation  charter  of  Charles,  the  question  was,  "  Have  we 
a  right  to  remove  to  Blassachusetts  ? "  The  lawyers  said, 
"No."  The  fathers  said,  "Yes;  we  will  remove  to  Massa- 
chusetts, and  let  law  find  the  reason  fifty  years  hence."  They 
knew  that  they  had  the  substantial  right.  Their  motto  was 
not  "Law  and  Order";  it  was  "  God  and  Justice"  —  a  much 
better  motto.  Unless  you  take  "Law  and  Order"  in  the 
highest  meaning  of  tlie  words,  it  is  a  base  motto  —  if  it  means 
only  ix'cognizii.g  the  majority.  "  Crime,"  says  Victor  Hugo, 
"  comes  to  history  gilded  and  crowned,  and  says,  '  I  um  not 
crime ;  I  am  success.' "  And  history,  written  by  a  soul  girded 
with  parchments  and  stunned  with  half  a  dozen  languages, 
says,  "Yes,  thou  art  success  ;  we  accept  thee."  But  the  faith- 
ful soul  below  dies  out,  "  Thou  art  chime  !  Avaunt !  "  There 
is  so  much  in  words. 

Tliis  is  the  lesson  of  Puritanism — how  shall  we  meet  it 
to-duy?  Every  age  stereotypes  its  ideas  into  forms.  It  is 
the  natural  tendency ;  and  wlien  it  is  done,  every  age  grows 
old  and  dies.  It  is  God's  beneficent  providence  —  death 
When  ideas  have  shaped  themselves  and  become  fossil  and 
still,  God  takes  off  the  weight  of  the  dead  men  from  their  age, 
and  leaves  room  for  the  new  bud.  It  is  a  blessed  institution 
—  death!  But  there  are  men  running  about  who  think  that 
those  forms,  which  the  old  and  the  experience  of  the  past  have 
left  them,  are  necessarily  right  and  indisfjcnsable.  They  are 
Conservatives.  The  men  who  hold  their  ears  open  for  tlie 
message  of  the  present  hour,  they  are  the  Puritans. 
IQ 


IIO 


Wendell  Phillips. 


I  know  these  things  seem  very  trite ;  they  are  vejy  trite. 
AU  truth  is  trite.  The  difficulty  is  not  in  truth.  Truth  never 
stirs  up  any  trouble  —  mere  speculative  truth.  Plato  taught— 
nobody  cared  what  he  taught ;  Socrates  applied  truth  in  the 
streets,  and  they  poisoned  him.  It  is  when  a  man  throws 
himself  against  society  that  society  is  startled  to  persecute  and 
to  think.  The  Puritan  did  not  stop  to  think.  He  recognized 
God  in  his  soul,  and  acted.  If  he  acted  wrong,  our  genei-ation 
would  load  down  his  grave  with  curses.  He  took  the  risk. 
He  took  the  curses  of  the  present,  but  the  blessings  of  the 
future  swept  them  away,  and  God's  sunlight  rests  upon  his 
grave.  That  is  what  every  brave  man  does.  It  is  an  easy 
thing  to  say.  The  old  fable  is  of  Sysiphus  rolling  up  a  stone, 
and  the  moment  he  gets  it  up  to  the  mountain  top,  it  rolls 
back  again.  So  each  generation,  with  much  trouble,  and 
great  energy  and  disinterestedness,  vindicates  for  a  few  of  its 
sons  the  right  to  think  ;  and  the  moment  they  have  vindicated 
the  right,  the  stone  rolls  back  again  —  nobody  else  must  think! 
The  battle  must  be  fought  every  day,  because  the  body  rebels 
against  the  soul.  It  is  the  insurrection  of  the  soul  against  the 
body — free  thought.  The  gods  piled  iEtna  upon  the  insur- 
gent Titans.  It  is  the  emblem  of  the  world  piling  mountains 
— banks,  gold,  cotton,  parties,  Everetts,  Cusbings,  Couriers  — 
evety  thing  dull  and  heavy  —  to  keep  down  thought.  And 
ever  again,  in  each  generation,  the  living  soul,  like  the  burst- 
ing bud,  throws  up  the  incumbent  soil,  and  finds  its  way  to  the 
sunshine  and  to  God ;  and  is  the  oak  of  the  future,  leafing 
out,  spreading  its  branches,  and  sheltering  the  race  and  time 
that  is  to  come. 

I  hold  in  my  hand  the  likeness  of  a  child  of  seventeen  sum- 
mers, taken  from  the  body  of  a  boy,  her  husband,  who  lies 
buried  on  the  banks  of  the  Shenandoah.  He  flung  himself 
against  a  State  for  an  idea ;  the  child  of  a  father  who  lived 
for  an  idea ;  who  said,  "  I  know  that  Slavery  is  wrong ;  thou 
Bhalt  do  unto  another  as  thou  wouldst  have  another  do  to 


Wendell  Phillips. 


Ill 


lliQQ  "  —  and  flung  himself  against  the  law  and  order  of  his 
time.  Ifobody  can  dispute  his  principles.  There  are  men 
who  dispute  his  acts.  It  is  exactly  what  he  meant  they  should 
do.  It  is  the  collision  of  admitted  principles  with  conduct 
which  is  the  teacliing  of  ethics ;  it  is  the  Normal  school  of'ii 
generation.  Puritanism  went  up  and  down  England  and  fui- 
filled  its  mission.  It  revealed  despotism.  Charles  the  First 
and  James,  in  order  to  rule,  were  obliged  to  persecute.  Under 
the  guise  of  what  seemed  government,  they  had  hidden 
tyranny.  Patriotism  tore  off  the  mask,  and  said  to  the  en- 
lightened conscience  and  sleeping  intellect  of  England,  "  Be- 
hold !  that  is  despotism ! "  It  was  the  first  lesson ;  it  was  tho 
text  of  the  English  Revolution.  Men  still  slumbered  in  sub- 
mission to  hiw.  They  tore  off  the  semblance  of  law;  they 
revealed  despotism.  John  Brown  has  done  the  same  for  m 
to-day.  The  Slave  system  has  lost  its  fascination.  It  had  a 
certain  picturesque  charm  for  some.  It  called  itself  "chiv- 
alrv,"  and  "a  state."  One  assault  has  broken  the  charm  —  it 
is  Despotism !  Look  how  barbarous  it  is  !  Take  a  .single 
instance.  A  young  girl  throws  herself  upon  the  bosom  of  a 
Northern  boy,  who  himself  had  shown  mercy,  and  endeavora 
to  save  him  from  the  Christian  rifles  of  Virginia.  They  tore 
her  o^,  and  the  pitiless  bullet  found  its  way  to  the  brave  young 
heart.  She  stands  upon  the  streets  of  that  very  town,  and  dare 
not  avow  the  motive  —  glorious,  humane  instinct  —  that  led 
her  to  throw  herself  on  the  bosom  of  the  hapless  boy !  She 
bows  to  the  despotism  of  a  brutal  State,  and  makes  excuses 
for  her  humanity !  That  is  the  Christian  Virginia  of  1859. 
In  1608,  an  Indian  girl  flung  herself  before  her  father's  toma- 
hawk on  the  bosom  of  an  English  gentleman,  and  the  Indian 
refrained  from  touching  the  traveller  whom  his  daughter's 
affection  protected.  Pocahontas  lives  to-day,  the  ideal  beauty 
of  Virginia,  and  her  proudest  names  strive  to  trace  their  lin- 
eage to  the  brave  Indian  girl.  That  was  Pagan  Virginia, 
two  centuries  and  a  half  ago.    What  has  dragged  her  down 


Wendell  Phillips. 


from  Pocahontrtfj  in  1 608  to  John  Biwvn  in  1 8oJ>,  when  h-  - 
manit.y  is  disgmcefijl,  and  despotism  treads  it  ont  under  its 
iron  heel  ?— -who  re^•e^led  it?  One  brave  act  of  an  old.  Pu- 
ritan soul,  that  did  not  stop  to  ask  ./hat  the  majority  thought, 
or  what;  fbrms  were,  bat  acied.  The  revelation  of  de-^potism 
18  the  great  lewon  which  the  Puritan  of  onr  month  lias  taught 
us.  tie  has  flung  himself,  imder  the  Instinct  of  a  great  idea, 
against  the  in'^ititntions  beneath  which  we  sit;  and  he  says, 
practically,  to  the,  world,  as  the  Puritan  did,  "  If  I  am  a  felon, 
bury  me  %vith  curses.  I  will  trust  to  a  future  age  to  judge 
betwixt  you  and  me.  Posterity  will  summon  the  State  to 
judgment,  and  will  admit  my  principle.  T  can  wait."  Men 
say  it  is  anarchy;  that  this  right  of  the  individual  to  sit  in 
judgment  cinnot  bo  tnisted.  It  is  the  lesson  of  Puritanism, 
If  the  individual,  criticising  law,  cannot  be  trusted,  then  Puri' 
tanism  is  a  mistake ;  for  the  sanctity  of  individual  judgment 
is  the  lesson  of  iVfassachusetti!  history  in  1020  and  '30.  "We 
accepted  anarchy  as  the  safest.  The  Puritan  said,  "  Human 
nature  is  sinful  "  ;  so  the  e^iilh  is  accursed  since  the  Pull ;  but 
I  canjiot  find  any  thing  better  than  this  old  earth  to  build  on ; 
I  must  put  up  my  comer-stone  upon  it,  cursed  as  it  is ;  I  can- 
not lay  hold  of  the  battlements  of  heaven."  So  Puritanism 
said,  "  Human  natui-e  is  sinful ;  but  it  is  the  best  basis  weTiave 
got.  We  will  build  upon  it,  and  we  will  trust  the  influences 
of  God,  the  inherent  gravitation  of  the  race  towards  right,  that 
it  wil!  end  right." 

I  affirm  that  this  is  the  lesson  of  otjr  history:  that  the  world 
is  fluid  ;  that  we  are  on  the  ocean  ;  that  we  cannot  get  rid  of 
the  people,  and  we  do  not  want  to;  that  the  millions  are  our 
basis ;  and  that  God  has  set  us  this  task :  "  If  you  want 
good  institutions,  do  not  try  to  bulwark  out  the  ocean  of  popu- 
lar thougiit- — educate  it.  If  you  want  good  laws,  earn  them." 
Conservatism  says,  "I  nan  make  my  own  hearthstone  safe:  I 
can  build  a  bulwark  of  gold  and  bayonets  about  it  high  as 
heaven  and  deep  as  hell,  and  nobody  can  touch,  me,  and  that 


Wendell  Phillips. 


is  enough."  I^orlfrinlsm  unyn,  "It  is  n  dftlusjon ;  k  k  ft  refu^^f; 
of  lies ;  it  ia  not  Sfifc.  The  waters  of  ]r>o[)ular  instinct  will 
carry  it  nway.  W  yon  wnnt  your  own  cradle  safe,  rnf;.ke  the 
cradle  of  every  ()ther  nrin  Pfife  and  pure,  Edueaie  the 
people  up  to  the  law  you  Wft^if."  Jlow  ?  They  cannot  stop 
for  books-— show  them  manhood  —  show  them  a  brave  act. 
What  has  John  Brown  done  for  us?  The  world  doubted 
over  the  horrid  word  "  insurrection,"  whether  the  victim  had 
a  right  to  nrraat  the  course  of  his  master,  and,  even  at  any 
expense  of  blood,  U)  vindicate  his  right.'i ;  and  Brown  said  to 
his  neighbors  in  the  old  school-house  at  North  Elba,  sitting 
among  the  enows  — where  nothing  grows  but  men — wh«at 
freezes  —  "  1  can  go  .South,  and  show  the  world  that  he  has  a 
right  to  rise  and  can  rise."  He  went,  girded  about  by  hia 
household,  carrying  his  sons  with  him.  I'roof  of  a  life  de- 
moted to  an  idea  1  Not  a  single  spa3mo<lic  act  of  greatness, 
corning  out  with  no  background,  but  the  flowering  of  sixty 
years.  The  proof  of  it,  that  every  thing  around  him  grouped 
itself  harmoniously,  like  the  planets  around  the  central  sun. 
He  went  down  to  Virginia,  took  possession  of  a  town,  and  held 
it.  lie  says,  "  You  thought  this  was  strength ;  I  demonstrate 
it  is  weakness.  You  thought  this  was  dvil  society;  I  show 
yon  it  is  a  den  of  pirates."  Then  he  turned  around  in  hh 
sublimity,  with  his  Puritan  devotional  heart,  and  said  to  the 
millions,  "  Learn  ! "  And  God  lifted  a  million  hearts  to  hh 
gibbet,  as  the  Roman  cross  lifted  a  million  of  hearts  to  it,  in 
that  divine  sacrifice  of  two  thousand  years  ago.  To-day,  more 
than  a  statesman  could  have  taught  in  seventy  years,  one  act 
of  a  week  has  taught  these  eighteen  millions  of  people. 

What  shall  it  teach  us  ?  "  Go  thou  and  do  likewise."  Do 
it,  by  a  resolute  life.  Do  it,  by  a  fearless  rebuke.  Do  it,  by 
preaching  the  sermon  of  which  this  act  is  the  text.  Do  it, 
by  standing  by  the  great  example  which  God  has  given  ns. 
Do  ii,  by  tearing  asunder  the  veil  of  respectability  which 
covers  brutality,  calling  itself  law.  We  had  a  "  Union  meet- 
10* 


114  Wendell  Phillips. 


ing  "  in  this  city  a  while  ago.  For  the  first  time  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  political  brutality  dared  to  enter  the  sacredness 
of  the  sick  chamber,  and  visit  with  ridicule  the  broken  intellect, 
sheltered  from  criticism  under  the  cover  of  sickness.  Never, 
since  I  knew  Boston,  has  any  lip,  howerer  embittered,  dared 
to  open  the  door  which  God's  hand  had  closed,  making  the 
inmate  sacred,  as  he  rested  in  broken  health.  The  four  thou- 
sand men  who  sat  beneath  the  speaker  are  said  to  have 
received  it  in  silence.  If  so,  it  can  only  be  that  they  were 
not  surprised  at  the  brutality  from  such  lips.  And  those  who 
sat  at  hfs  side — they  judge  us  by  our  associates  —  they  criticise 
us,  in  general,  for  the  loud  word  of  any  comrade  —  shall  we 
take  the  scholar  of  New  England,  and  drag  him  down  to  the 
level  of  the  brutal  Svyiss  of  politics,  and  judge  him  indecent 
because  his  associates  were  indecent  ?  Gladly  do  I  seize  the 
opportunity  of  protesting,  in  the  name  of  Boston  decency, 
against  the  brutal  language  of  a  man,  —  thank  God,  not  born 
on  our  peninsula,  —  against  the  noble  and  benighted  intellect 
of  Gerrit  Smith,  whom  God  bless  with  new  health. 

On  that  occasion,,  too,  a  noble  island  was  calumniated.  The 
New  England  scholar,  bereft  of  every  thing  else  on  which  to 
arraign  the  great  movement  in  Virginia,  takes  up  a  lie  about 
St.  Domingo,  and  hurls  it  in  the  face  of  an  ignorant  audi- 
ence —  ignorant,  because  no  man  ever  thought  it  worth  while 
to  do  justice  to  the  negro.  Edward  Everett  would  be  the  last 
to  allow  us  to  take  an  English  version  of  Bunker  Hill,  to  take 
an  Englishman's  account  of  Hamilton  and  Washington,  when 
they  ordered  the  scaffold  of  Andre,  and  read  it  to  an  American 
audience  as  a  faithful  description  of  the  scene.  But  when  he 
wants  to  malign  a  race,  he  digs  up  from  the  prejudice  of  an 
enemy  they  had  conquered  a  forgotten  lie — showing  how  weak 
was  the  cause  he  espoused,  when  the  opposite  must  be  assailed 
with  falsehood,  for  it  could  not  be  assailed  with  any  thing  else. 

I  said  that  they  had  gone  to  sleep,  and  only  turned  in  their 
graves  —  those  men  in  Faneuil  Hall.    It  was  not  wholly  true. 


Wendell  Phillips. 


"5 


The  chairman  came  down  from  the  heart  of  the  Common- 
wealth, and  spoke  to  Boston  safe  words  in  Faneuil  Hall,  for 
which  he  would  have  been  lynched  at  Richmond,  had  he 
uttered  them  there  that  evening.  I  rejoice  that  a  hunker  can- 
not live  in  Massachusetts,  without  being  wider  awake  than  he 
imagines.  He  must  imbibe  fanaticism.  Insurrection  is  epi- 
demic in  the  State ;  treason  is  our  inheritance.  The  Puritans 
planted  it  in  the  very  structure  of  the  State ;  and  when  their 
children  try  to  curse  a  martyr,  like  the  prophet  of  old,  half  the 
curse,  at  least,  turns  into  a  blessing.  I  thank  God  for  that 
Massachusetts !  Let  us  not  blame  our  neighbors  too  much. 
There  is  something  in  the  very  atmosphere  that  stands  above 
the  ashes  of  the  Puritans,  that  prevents  the  very  most  servile 
of  hearts  from  holding  a  meeting  which  the  despots  of  Vir- 
ginia can  relish.  It  is  a  hard  task  to  be  servile  within  forty  ^ 
miles  of  Plymouth.  They  have  not  learned  the  part ;  with 
all  their  wish,  they  play  it  awkwardly.  It  is  the  old,  stiff 
Puritan  trying  to  bend,  and  they  do  it  with  a  marvellous  lack 
of  grace.  I  read  encouragement  in  the  very  signs  —  the 
awkward  attempts  made  to  resist  this  very  effort  of  the  glori- 
ous martyr  of  the  Northern  hills  of  New  York.  Virginia 
herself  looks  into  his  face  and  melts;  she  has  nothing  but 
praises.  She  tries  to  scan  his  traits ;  they  are  too  manly,  and 
she  bows.  Her  press  can  only  speak  of  his  manliood.  One 
must  get  outside  the  influence  of  his  personal  presence  before 
the  slaves  of  Virginia  can  dig  up  a  forgotten  Kansas  lie,  and 
hurl  it  against  the  picture  which  Virginian  admiration  has 
painted.  That  does  not  come  from  Virginia.  Northern  men 
volunteer  to  do  the  work  which  Virginia,  lifted  for  a  moment 
by  the  sight  of  martyrdom,  is  unable  to  accomplisi:.  A  New- 
buryport  man  comes  to  Boston,  and  says  that  he  hnows  John 
Brown  was  at  the  massacre  of  Pottawattomie.  He  was  only 
twenty-five  miles  off!  The  Newburyport  orator  gets  within 
thirty  miles  of  the  truth,  and  that  is  very  near  —  for  him ! 
But  Vir^nia  was  unable — mark  you !  —  Virginia  was  unable 


ii6  Wendell  Phillips. 

to  criticise.  She  could  only  bow.  It  is  the  most  striking 
evidence  of  the  majesty  of  the  action. 

There  is  one  picture  which  stands  out  in  bright  relief  in  this 
event.  On  that  mountain-side  of  the  Adirondack,  up  among 
the  snows,  there  is  a  plain  cottage — "plain  living,  and  high 
thinking,"  as  "Wordsworth  says.  Grouped  there  are  a  family 
of  girls  and  boys,  hardly  over  twenty ;  sitting  supreme,  the 
majestic  spirit  of  a  man  just  entering  age  —  life  one  purpose. 
Other  men  breed  their  sons  for  ambition,  avarice,  trade ;  he 
breeds  iiis  for  martyrdom,  and  they  accept  serenely  their 
places.  Hardly  a  book  under  its  roof  but  the  Bible.  No 
sound  so  familiar  as  prayer.  He  takes  them  in  his  right  hand 
and  in  his  left,  and  goes  down  to  the  land  of  bondage.  Like 
the  old  Puritans  of  two  hundred  years  ago,  "the  muskets  are 
on  one  side  and  the  pikes  upon  the  other ;  but  the  morning 
prayer  goes  up  from  the  domestic  altar,  as  it  did  from  the  lips 
of  Brewster  and  Carver,  and  no  morsel  is  ever  tasted  without 
that  same  grace  which  was  made  at  Plymouth  and  Salem ; 
and  at  last  he  flings  himself  against  the  gigantic  system,  which 
trembles  under  his  single  arm.  You  measure  the  strength  of 
a  blow  by  the  force  of  the  rebound.  Men  thought  Virginia  a 
Commonwealth ;  he  reveals  it  a  worse  than  Austrian  despot- 
ism. Neighboi's  dare  not  speak  to  each  other ;  Courts  cannot 
wait  for  the  slow  step  of  Saxon  forms  and  safeguards ;  startled 
Judges  have  no  time  to  take  notes  of  testimony ;  no  man  can 
travel  on  the  highway  without  a  passport ;  the  telegraph  wires 
are  sealed,  except  with  a  permit;  the  State  shakes  beneath 
the  tramp' of  cannon  and  armed  men.  What  does  she  fear? 
Conscience.  The  apostle  has  come  to  tormeri  her,  and  he 
finds  the  weakest  spot  herself.  She  dares  not  trust  the  usual 
forms  of  justice.  Arraigned  in  what  she  calls  her  court,  is  a 
wounded  man,  on  a  pallet,  unable  to  stand.  The  civilized 
world  stands  aghast.  She  says,  "  It  is  necessary."  Why  ? 
"  I  stand  on  a  volcano.  The  Titans  are  heaving  beneath  the 
mountains.     Thought — the  earthquake  of  conscience  —  is 


Wendell  Phillips. 


117 


below  me."  It  is  the  acknowledgment  of  defeat.  The  Roman 
thought,  when  he  looked  upon  the  Cross,  that  it  was  the  sym- 
bol of  infamy — only  the  vilest  felon  hung  there.  One  sacred 
sacrifice,  and  the  cross  nestles  in  our  hearts,  the  emblem  of 
every  thing  holy.  Virginia  erects  her  gibbet,  repulsive  in 
name  and  form.  One  man  goes  up  from  it  to  God,  with  Iwo 
hundred  thousand  broken  fetters  in  his  hands,  and  henceforth 
it  is  sacred  forever. 

I  said,  that  to  vindicate  Puritanism,  the  children  must  be 
better  than  the  fathers.  Lo,  this  event!  Brewster,  and  Car- 
ver, and  Bradford,  and  Winthrop  faced  a  "New  England  win- 
ter and  defied  law  for  themselves.  For  us,  their  childix'n, 
they  planted  and  sowed.  They  said,  "  Lo !  our  rights  are 
trodden  under  foot;  our  cradles  are  not  safe;  our  prayers 
may  not  ascend  to  God."  They  formed  a  State,  and  achieved 
that  liberty.  John  Brown  goes  a  stride  beyond  them.  Under 
his  own  roof,  he  might  pray  at  liberty ;  his  own  children  wore 
no  fetters.  In  the  catalogue  of  Saxon  heroes  and  martyrs, 
the  Ridleys  and  the  Latimers,  he  only  saw  men  dying  for 
themselves;  in  the  brave  souls  of  our  own  day,  he  saw  men 
good  as  their  fathers ;  but  he  leaped  beyond  them,  and  died 
for  a  race  whose  blood  he  did  not  share.  This  child  of  seven- 
teen years  gives  her  husband  for  a  race  into  whose  eyes  - 
she  never  looked.  Braver  than  Carver  or  Winthrop,  more 
disinterested  than  Bradford,  broader  than  Hancock  or  Wash- 
ington, pure  as  the  brightest  names  on  our  catalogue  —  nearer 
God's  heart,  foA  with  a  divine  magnanimity  he  comprehended 
all  races — Ridley  and  Latimer  minister  before  him.  He 
sits  in  that  heaven  of  which  he  showed  us  the  open  door,  with 
the  great  #nen  of  Saxon  blood  ministering  below  his  feet. 
And  yet  they  have  a  right  to  say,  "  We  created  him." 

Lord  Bacon,  as  he  takes  his  march  down  1  he  centuries,  may 
put  one  hand  on  the  telegraph  and  the  other  on  the  steam 
engine,  and  say, "  These  are  mine,  for  I  taught  you  to  invent." 
So  the  Puritans  may  bless  John  Brown,  and  say,  "  You  are 


ii8 


Wendell  Phillips. 


ours,  though  you  have  gone  beyond  us,  for  we  taught  you  to 
believe  in  God.  We  taught  you  to  say,  God  is  God,  and 
trample  wicked  laws  under  your  feet."  And  now,  from  that 
Virginia  gibbet,  he  says  to  us,  "The  maxim  I  taught  you, 
practise  it !  The  principle  I  have  shown  you,  apply  it !  If 
the  crisis  becomes  sterner,  meet  it !  If  the  battle  is  closer,  be 
true  to  my  memory!  Men  say  my  act  was  a  failure.  I 
showed  what  I  promised,  that  the  slave  ought  to  resist,  and 
could.  Sixteen  men  I  placed  under  the  shelter  of  English 
law,  and  then  I  taught  the  millions.  Prove  that  my  enter- 
prise was  not  a  failure,  by  showing  a  North  ready  to  stand 
behind  it.  I  am  willing,  in  God's  service,  to  plunge  with 
ready  martyrdom  into  the  chasm  that  opens  in  the  forum,  only 
show  yourselves  worthy  to  stand  upon  my  grave  ! " 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  the  lesson  of  Puritanism,  as  it  is 
read  to  us  to-day.  "  Law  "  and  "  order  "  are  only  names  for 
the  halting  ignorance  of  the  last  generation.  John  Brown  is 
the  impersonation  of  God's  order  and  God's  law,  moulding  a 
better  future,  and  setting  for  it  an  example. 


VIII. 


Speech  by  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.* 

MR.  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  been  struck  with  one  fact, 
that  the  best  orators  who  have  added  their  praise  to  his 
fame  —  and  I  need  not  go  out  of  this  house  to  find  the  purest 
eloquence  in  the  country — have  one  rival  who  comes  off  a 
little  better,  and  that  is  John  Brown.  Every  thing  that  is 
said  of  him  leaves  people  a  little  dissatisfied ;  but  as  soon  as 
tiiey  read  his  own  speeches  and  letters  they  are  heartily  con- 
tented—  such  is  the  singleness  of  purpose  which  justifies  him 
to  the  head  and  the  heart  of  all.  Taught  by  this  experience, 
I  mean,  in  the  few  remarks  I  have  to  make,  to  cling  to  his 
history,  or  let  him  speak  for  himself. 

John  Brown,  the  founder  of  liberty  in  Kansas,  was  born  ia 
Sorrington,  Litchfield  County,  Conn.,  in  1800.  When  he  was 
five  years  old  his  father  emigrated  to  Ohio,  and  the  boy  was 
there  set  to  keep  sheep,  and  to  look  after  cattle,  and  dres3 
skins;  he  went  bareheaded  and  barefooted,  and  clothed  in 
buckskin.  He  said  that  he  loved  rough  play,  could  never 
have  rough  play  enough ;  could  not  see  a  seedy  hat  without 
wishing  to  pull  it  oflf.  But  for  this  it  needed  that  the  plaj^- 
mates  should  be  equal ;  not  one  in  fine  clothes  and  the  other 
in  buckskin  ;  not  one  his  own  master,  hale  and  hearty,  and  the 
other  watched  and  whipped.  But  it  chanced  that  in  Penn- 
sylvania, where  he  was  sent  by  his  father  to  collect  cattle,  he 

*  Dcllverca  at  tho  Brown  Relief  Meeting,  held  at  Salom,  Maes.,  January  0, 18G0. 

(119) 


120  Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon. 


fell  in  with  a  boy  whom  he  heartily  liked,  and  whom  he  looked 
upon  as  his  superior.  This  boy  was  a  slave ;  he  saw  him 
beaten  with  an  iron  sliovel,  and  otherwise  maltreated ;  he  saw 
that  this  boy  had  nothing  better  to  look  forward  to  in  life, 
whilst  he  himself  was  petted  and  made  much  of ;  for  he  was 
much  considered  in  the  family  where  he  then  stayed,  from  the 
circumstance  that  this  boy  of  twelve  years  had  conducted  alone 
a  drove  of  cattle  a  hundred  miles.  But  the  colored  boy  had 
no  friend,  and  no  future.  This  worked  such  indignation  in 
him  that  he  swore  an  oath  of  resistance  to  Slavery  as  long  as 
he  lived.  And  thus  his  enterprise  to  go  into  Virginia  and  run 
off  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  slaves,  was  not  a  piece  of  spite 
or  revenge,  a  plot  of  two  years  or  of  twenty  yeai*s,  but  the 
keeping  of  an  oath  made  to  heaven  and  earth  forty-seven 
years  before.  Forty-seven  years  at  least,  though  I  incline  to 
accept  his  own  account  of  the  matter,  at  Chai-lestown,  which 
makes  the  date  a  little  older,  when  he  said,  "  This  was  all 
settled  millions  of  years  before  the  world  was  made." 

He  grew  up  a  religious  and  manly  person  m  ^everc  poverty ; 
a  fair  specimen  of  the  best  stock  of  New  England ;  having  that 
force  of  thought  and  that  sense  of  right  which  are  the  warp 
and  woof  of  greatness.  Our  farmers  were  Orthodox  Calvin- 
ists,  mighty  in  the  Scriptures ;  had  learned  that  life  was  a 
preparation,  a  "  probation,"  to  use  their  word,  for  a  higher 
world,  and  was  to  be  spent  in  loving  and  serving  mankind. 

Thus  was  formed  a  romantic  character  absolutely  without 
any  vulgar  tr&it ;  Iwing  to  ideal  ends,  without  any  mixture  of 
self-indulgence  or  compromise,  such  as- lowers  the  value  of 
benevolent  and  thoughtful  men  we  know ;  abstemious,  refusing 
luxuries,  not  sourly  and  reproachfully,  but  simply  as  unfit  for 
his  habit ;  quiet  and  gentle  as  a  child  in  the  house.  And,  as 
happens  usually  to  men  of  romantic  character,  his  fortunes 
were  romantic.  Walter  Scott  would  have  delighted  to  draw 
his  picture  and  trace  his  adventurous  career.  A  shepherd  and 
herdsman,  he  learned  the  manners  of  animals,  and  knew  the 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon.  121 


secret  signals  by  which  animals  communicate.  He  made  his 
hard  bed  on  the  mountains  with  them ;  he  learned  to  drive  his 
flock  through  thickets  all  but  impassable ;  he  had  all  the  skill 
of  a  shepherd  by  choice  of  bresd,  and-  by  wise  husbandry  to 
obtain  the  best  wool,  and  that  for  a  course  of  years.  And  the 
anecdotes  preserved  show  a  far-seeing  skill  and  conduct  which, 
in  spite  of  adverse  accidents,  should  secure,  one  year  with 
another,  an  honest  reward,  first  to  the  farmer,  and  afterwards 
to  the  dealer.  If  he  kept  sheep,  it  was  with  a  royal  mind ; 
and  if  he  traded  in  wool,  he  was  a  merchant  princu,  not  in  the 
amount  of  wealth,  but  in  the  protection  of  the  interests  con- 
fided to  him. 

I  am  not  a  little  surprised  at  the  easy  effrontery  with  which 
political  gentlemen,  in  and  out  of  Congress,  take  it  upon  them 
to  say  that  there  are  not  a  tliousand  men  in  the  North  who 
sympathize  with  John  Brown.  It  would  be  far  safer  and 
nearer  the  truth  to  say  that  all  people,  in  proportion  to  their 
sensibility  and  self-respect,  sympathize  with  him.  For  it  is 
impossible  to  see  courage,  and  disinterestedness,  and  the  love 
that  casts  out  fear,  without  sympathy. 

All  women  are  drawn  to  him  by  their  predominance  of  sen- 
timent. All  gentlemen,  of  course,  are  on  his  side.  I  do  not 
mean  by  "  gentlemen,"  people  of  scented  hair  and  perfumed 
handkerchiefs,  but  men  of  gentle  blood  and  generosity,  "  ful- 
filled with  all  nobleness,"  who,  like  the  Cid,  give  the  outcast 
leper  a  share  of  their  bed ;  like  the  dying  Sidney,  pass  the 
cup  of  cold  water  to  the  wounded  soldier  who  needs  it  more. 
For  what  is  the  oath  of  gentle  blood  and  knighthood  ?  What 
but  to  protect  the  weak  and  lowly  against  the  strong  op- 
pressor ? 

Nothing  is  more  absurd  than  to  complain  of  this  sympathy, 
or  to  complain  of  a  party  of  men  united  in  opposition  to 
Slavery.  As  well  complain  of  gravity,  or  the  ebb  of  the  tide. 
Who  makes  the  Abolitionist  ?  The  Slaveholder.  The  senti- 
ment of  mercy  is  the  natural  recoil  which  the  laws  of  the  uni- 
11 


122 


Ralph  Waldo  Emerfon. 


verse  provide  to  protect  mankind  from  destruction  by  savage 
passions.  And  our  blind  statesmen  go  up  and  down,  with 
committees  of  vigilance  and  safety,  hunting  for  the  origin  of 
this  new  heresy.  They  will  need  a  very  vigilant  committee 
indeed  to  find  its  birthplace,  and  a  very  strong  force  to  root 
it  out.  For  the  arch-Abolitionist,  older  than  Brown,  and 
older  than  the  Shenandoah  Mountains,  is  Love,  whose  other 
name  is  Justice,  which  was  before  Alfred,  before  Lycurgus, 
before  Slavery,  and  will  be  after  it. 


MOUNT  SINAI. 


The  Virginia  Scaffold. 


Beab  ok  high  the  scaffold  altar!  all  the  world  will  turn  to  see 

Bow  a  man  has  dared  to  snffer  that  his  brother  may  be  fzee  I 

Hear  it  on  some  hill-eide  looking  North,  and  South,  and  East,  and  West, ' 

■Where  the  wind  from  eTery  quarter  fresh  may  blow  upon  his  breast, 

And  the  snn  look  down  nushaded  from  the  chill  December  sky, 

Olad  to  shine  upon  the  hero  who  for  Freedom  dared  to  die  t 

All  the  world  will  turn  to  see  him ;  from  the  pines  of  wave-washed  Main* 

To  the  golden  rivers  rolling  over  California's  plain ; 

And  from  clear  Superior's  waters  where  the  wild  swan  loves  to  sail, 

To  the  Gulf-lands,  summer-bosomed,  fanned  by  ocean's  softest  gale; 

£very  heart  will  beat  the  faster  in  its  sorrow  or  its  scorn. 

For  the  man ;  nor  courts,  nor  prison,  can  annoy  another  mom  1 

And  from  distant  climes  and  nations  men  shall  westward  gaze,  and  say, 

"  He  who  perilled  all  for  Freedom  on  the  scaffold  dies  to-day." 

Never  offering  was  richer,  nor  did  temple  fairer  rise 

For  the  gods  serenely  smiling  from  the  blue  Olympian  skies; 

Poi-phyry  or  granite  column  did  not  statelier  cleave  the  air, 

Than  the  posts  of  yonder  gallows  with  the  cross-beam  waiting  there; 

And  the  victim,  wreathed  and  crowned,  not  for  Sian  nor  for  Jove, 

But  for  Liberty  and  Manhood  comes,  the  sacrifice  of  Love. 

They  may  hang  him  ou  the  gibbet;  they  may  raise  the  victor's  cry, 
When  they  see  him  darkly  swinging  like  a  speck  against  the  sky ;  — 
Ah,  the  dying  of  a  hero,  that  the  right  may  win  its  way. 
Is  but  sowing  seed  for  harvest  in  a  warm  and  mellow  May  1 
Now  his  story  shall  be  whispered  by  the  firelight's  evening  glow^ 
And  in  fields  of  rice  and  cotton,  when  the  hot  noon  passes  slow. 
Till  his  name  shall  be  a  watchword  from  Missouri  to  the  sea. 
And  his  planting  find  its  reaping  in  the  birthday  of  the  Free  I 

Christ,  the  crucified,  attend  him,  weak  and  erring  though  he  be ; 
In  his  measure  hi>  has  striven,  suffering  Lord,  to  love  like  Thee ; 
Thou  the  vine,  thy  friends  the  branches,  is  he  not  a  branch  of  Thine, 
Though  some  dregs  from  earthly  vintage  have  defiled  the  hep.7enly  wine? 
Now  his  tendrils  lie  unclasped,  bruised  and  prostrate  on  the  sod,  — 
Take  him  to  thine  upper  garden,  where  the  husbandman  is  God. 


I. 


Sermon  by  Rev.  Gilbert  Haven.* 

ANEW  act  opens  in  the  great  drama  of  the  rights  and 
destiny  of  humanity,  which  is  now  being  performed  by 
this  nation,  in  the.  presence  of  an  astonished  world.  It  opens 
with  a  sound  of  war,  a  cry  for  blood.  Is  it  the  last  act  of 
(he  tragedy,  when  deaths  are  frequent ;  where  the  innocent 
first  fall,  the  wicked  follow ;  or  is  it  but  a  slight  interruption  to 
the  former  movement,  and  without  effect  on  that  which  shall 
come  after  ?  Let  us  consider  it  in  the  great  light  that  falls 
upon  us  from  Heaven ;  let  us  dwell  upon  it  in  no  frivolous . 
spirit,  but  in  deep  solemnity. 

"  Things  now 
That  bear  a  weighty  and  a  serious  brow, 
Sad,  high,  and  working,  full  of  state  and  woe ; 
Such  noble  scenes  as  draw  the  eye  to  flow, 
We  now  present." 

Let  us  keep  before  us  the  great  fact  —  the  violent  en- 
slavement of  forty  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  kindred  in  the 
flesh  and  in  the  Lord,  in  Adam  and  in  Christ.    Let  us  not 

*  Entitled,  <'  Tlio  Beginning  of  the  End  of  American  Slavery ; "  preached  at  Harvard 
Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Cambridge,  Kot.  0, 1859  : 

"  Surely  opiiression  malieth  a  wise  man  mad."  Eccl.  vii.  7. 
"  I  am  not  mad,  most  noble  EeHtns."    Acts  xxvi.  25. 

"  So  I  returned,  and  considered  all  the  oppressions  that  are  done  under  the  sun : 
and  behold  the  tears  of  such  us  were  oppressed,  and  they  had  no  comforter;  and  on 
the  side  of  their  oppressors  there  was  power,  but  they  liad  no  comforter.  Wherefore 
I  praised  the  dead  which  are  already  dead,  more  than  the  living  which  are  yet  alive." 
Eccl.  iv.  1,2. 

11*  (125) 


126 


Gilbert  Haven. 


forget  what  this  system  is  and  does  ;  how  it  thrusts  its  mis- 
created front  athwart  the  path  of  all  national  and  religious 
progress,  breaks  churches  to  pieces,  rules  and  ruins  great 
Christian  charities;  and  "above,  beyond  all  this,  sets  its 
Satanic  foot  on  man,  created  in  the  image  of  God,  crushes  out 
his  freedom,  his  culture,  his  piety,  his  «very  God-given  right 
and  pi-ivilege.  Connect  with  this  defiant,  triumphant  on- 
marching  institution  of  perdition  —  this  little  act  of  a  score 
of  men  —  and  see  if,  and  how,  such  a  small  stone  can  indeed 
sink  into  the  forehead  of  the  mighty  Goliath  and  smite  him 
to  the  dust.  And  may  God  help  us  to  speak  and  hear  in  all 
sincerity  and  godly  fear. 

You  all  know  the  published  history  of  the  transaction. 
About  twenty  men,  led  by  one  before  famous,  now  immortal, 
seized  a  few  slaveholders,  and  a  United  States  arsenal,  deliv- 
ered a  few  score  of  slaves,  were  taken,  most  of  the  number 
instantly  killed,  a  few  captured,  their  leader  tried,  condemned, 
and  sentenced  to  be  hung.  That  is  all.  How  can  this,  you 
may  say,  be  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  American  Slavery  ? 
A  glance  at  the  excitement  it  has  created  may  guide  you  to 
a  perception  of  this  great  fact. 

Not  less  than  three  orations  upon  it  were  published  in  the 
papers  of  last  week ;  every  journal  has  abounded  with  edito- 
rials upon  it ;  every  political  speech  has  been  burdened  with 
attempts  to  fasten  it  upon  their  opponents  and  ward  it  off 
from  themselves.  Within  a  month,  ten  thousand  thanksgiv- 
ing sermons  will  dwell  upon  its  lessons.  Even  now  every 
ear  and  tongue,  from  Galveston  to  Eastport,  is  burning  alive 
to  every  item  pertaining  to  it.  Never  has  any  single  event 
in  our  annals  so  inthralled  the  whole  nation.  The  court  of 
justice  instantly  takes  up  the  wondrous  tale.  With  an 
astounding  speed  it  connects  itself  with  the  moans  of  the 
wounded  and  bereaved,  drags  its  bleeding  prisoners  to  its 
bar,  refuses  all  demands  for  needed  and  brief  delay,  heeds  no 
claim  of  judicial  impartiality,  but  drives  its  deadly  business 


Gilbert  Haven. 


127 


at  this  fearful  rate,  and  only  breathes  frsely  when  it  has  pro- 
nounced over  the  doomed  gray  head  the  sentence  of  death. 
Nay,  it  does  not  breathe  freely  yet.  He  is  in  prison,  and  the 
centurion  and  his  band  keep  watch  day  and  night  over  him, 
lest  his  friends  come  and  steal  him  away,  and  the  last  error 
be  worse  than  the  first.  Whether  released  or  hung,  their 
influence  has  but  just  begun.  If  dead,  they  will  speak  as 
BO  dead  have  spoken  in  this  land,  since  WaiTeu  fell  asleep 
in  his  bloody  shroud.  If  alive  and  in  prison,  to  no  walls 
will  such  a  multitude  of  earnest  eyes  be  aimed  as  to  those 
that  shut  them  in.  If  at  liberty,  their  steps  will  be  followed 
by  myriads  of  sympathizing  friends  or  curious  foes. 

What  docs  all  this  mean  ?  What  does  it  portend  ?  Is  it 
simply  the  excitement  of  politics,  which  periodically  ebbs  and 
flows?  Politicians  may  seek  to  use  and  abuse  it;  but  the 
feeling  that  produced  it,  and  that  it  has  produced,  is  vastly 
greater  than  any  they  can  create  or  control.  Theirs  is  but 
the  tiny  vessel,  —  Great  Eastern  though  it  be,  —  this  is  of 
the  mighty  upheaval  of  the  ocean  underneath.  The  vessel 
may  reach  its  desired  haven,  or  go  down  among  the  billows 
it  has  sought  to  ride ;  the  waves  sweep  on,  under  the  laws  of 
their  Creator,  to  the  goal  he  has  set  for  them.  Is  it  the  ordi- 
nary excitement  of  a  community  at  a  murderous  riot  in  its 
midst?  Other  riots  are  constantly  occurring.  One  has  tran- 
spired since  this  event,  by  which  several  men  were  killed  and 
wounded,  and  a  great  city  surrendered  to  a  lawless  mob ;  and 
yet  a  brief  telegram  satisfies  the  general  hunger  for  the 
bloody  feast. 

Why  this  difference?  Because  the  one  is  exceptional, 
transient,  easily  and  palpably  curable ;  the  other  connects  it- 
self with  the  great  iniquity  that  covers  half,  and  darkens  all 
the  land.  It  is  the  first  blow  that  gigantic  power  ever  felt. 
It  is  a  blow  from  which  they  cannot  recover.  How  is  this 
the  case  ?  How  can  this  brief,  and  apparently  unsuccessful 
act,  be  considered  as  the  beginning  of  that  long-prayed  for,  — 


128 


Gilbert  Haven. 


we  can  hardly  say,  long-looked  for  hour,  —  the  death  of 
Slavery  ?    For  two  reasons  :  — 

First.  It  has  taught  the  slave  power  its  weakness.  Never 
has  such  trembling  shaken  their  knees  before.  Never  has 
such  a  thrill  of  horror  made  so  many  great  States  to  quake. 
Over  fifteen  States,  over  a  million  of  square  miles,  there  has 
run  one  feeling,  one  fear,  one  Belshazzar  sense  of  awful  guilt, 
and  awful  -weakness,  and  awful  punishment.  That  hand- 
writing on  the  wall  of  the  great  Southern  palace  of  pleasure, 
needed  no  slave  prophet,  like  Daniel,  to  interpret  it.  They 
understood  its  meaning — they  feared  its  instant  accomplish- 
ment. Their  action,  or  want  of  action,  in  this  conflict,  has 
placed  them  before  the  world,  as  totally  incapable  of  defend- 
ing themselves  against  any  moderately  well-devised  and  well- 
executed  rising  of  the  slaves.  Had  John  Brown  been  half 
as  successful  as  he  anticipated  ■ —  had  but  five  hundred  slaves 
joined  him  there  —  he  could  have  marched  to  New  Orleans, 
freeing  all  the  slaves  on  his  way,  for  all  the  slaveholders 
could  have  done  to  stop  him.  His  folly  appears  to  be,  not  in 
counting  on  the  weakness  of  the  South,  but  in  neglecting  to 
count  on  the  strength  of  the  Federal  arm. 

"Well  may  they  tremble.  They  are  but  men  —  men  most 
guilty,  and  therefore  most  weak.  We  who  are  so  free  with 
our  gibes,  would  be  palsied  with  equal  horror  and  faintness,  if 
we  stood  on  the  same  rocking  and  cleaving  soil,  over  the 
same  mine  which  we  had  wickedly  filled  with  deadly  explo- 
sives, as  we  saw  the  torch  approaching  it. 

"  'Tis  conscience  that  makes  cowards  of  us  all." 

Supposing  you  had  stolen  a  man's  wages  from  his  youth,  had 
trampled  out  his  manhood,  beat  him  often  and  cruelly,  robbed 
him  of  his  wife  and  children  and  sold  them  from  his  arms, — 
how  would  you  feel  if  you  saw,  or  dreamed  you  saw,  that 
man  stand  before  you,  rifle  in  hand,  demanding  his  freedom  ? 
This  is  their  condition.    They  slept  but  little  before,  they 


Gilbert  Haven. 


129 


will  sleep  less  now.  The  planters  in  the  vicinity  of  the  out- 
break dare  not  spend  the  night  on  their  plantations.  They 
flee  when  no  man  pursueth.  Let  us  not  revile  them.  Let 
us  with  larger,  and  so,  tenderer  heart  lament  their  state,  while 
we  call  them,  by  these  fears,  to  repentance.  They  may  thus 
be  led  thither.  The  terrors  of  the  Lord  have  persuaded 
multitudes  of  men  to  be  holy.  God  surrounds  all  his  laws 
with  great  punishments,  so  that  those  who  will  not  be  led  by 
love  may  be  driven  by  fear.  May  we  not  hope  that  this 
sense  of  helplessness,  and  dread  of  the  just  vengeance  of  their 
oppressed  brethren,  will  persuade  them  to  give  them  that 
which  is  just  and  equal  ? 

Had  Pharaoh  heai'kened  to  his  fears,  he  would  have  eman- 
cipated his  bondmen  before  the  great  wrath  of  God  fell  so 
awfully  upon  him.  So,  if  these  Pharaohs,  who  have  so  long 
combined  against  the  Lord  and  against  his  children,  will  but 
heed  these  feelings  of  danger  and  powerlessness  that  their 
loving  Creator  has  given  them,  as  warnings  and  incentives 
to  duty,  they  will  ins'tantly  inaugurate  the  great  work  of 
emancipation. 

An  English  writer  (Mr.  Thackeray)  has  said  that  Great 
Britain,  in  the  Revolution,  never  overcame  the  influence  of 
Bunker's  Hill.  Much  less  will  the  slaveholders  overcome 
Harper's  Ferry.  Whether  bloodier  outbreaks  follow,  or 
more  peaceful  counsels  prevail,  be  assured  that  the  lessons  of 
this  hour  will  not  be  lost  on  them.  They  may,  for  a  season, 
wear  the  bold  face  they  have  so  long  borne.  They  may  still 
utter  great  swelling  words  of  vanity,  and  defy  the  armies  and 
the  truths  of  the  living  God,  but  their  hearts  are  moved  out 
of  their  place,  there  is  no  strength  in  them.  The  march  of 
the  great  cause  of  emancipation  is  far  from  being  stayed  by 
this  affair.  Crazy,  and  brok  3n  with  age  and  grief,  as  every 
body  seems  so  anxious  to  paint  the  leader  of  this  band,  that 
they  may  defend  themselves  from  all  complicity  in  his  plans, 
he  has  taught  the  haughty  South  what  she  cannot,  dare  not 


130 


Gilbert  Haven. 


forget  His  apparition  will  undoubtedly  incite  them  to  the 
work  God  will  yet  perform  through  them,  or  over  them. 

The  second  great  reason  for  considering  this  the  beginning 
of  the  end  of  this  accursed  crime  against  God  and  man,  is 
the  confidence  it  will  breathe  into  the  slave.  If  England 
never  forgot  Bunker's  Hill,  much  more  America  never  did. 
The  sight  of  the  falling  or  fleeing  forms  of  their  arrayed  op- 
pressors, on  that  memorable  day,  never  lost  its  tremendous 
power  over  their  hearts.  So  the  millions  of  the  enslaved 
will  never  forget  the  dismay,  which  turned  the  hearts  of  their 
masters  to  water,  at  the  first  gleaming  of  the  rifle,  the  first 
stern  demand  for  Freedom.  Harper's  Ferry  is  the  turning 
point  in  their  history.  Though  they  responded  but  feebly, 
though  they  have  maintained  a  most  wonderful  silence  since, 
though  they  seem  to  be  the  only  cool  -men  in  the  whole 
country,  excepting  their  would-be  deliverer,  still  they  are  not 
feeling-less  —  they  are  not  thought-less.  We  sneer  at  them 
because  they  did  not  avail  themselves  of  this  opportunity,  at 
the  same  time  that  we  brand  Captain  Brown  with  insanity 
for  offering  it  to  them.  Wiser  tlioughts  will  find  less  fault 
with  both  parties.  The  slaves  are  men.  As  one  born  to 
that  fate  said,  centuries  ago,  amid  the  applause  of  a  vast 
theatre  of  slaveholders :  "  I  am  a  man ;  nothing  human  13 
foreign  from  me."  They  are  but  men,  and,  therefore,  like  all 
the  white  races,  however  much  they  may  sat/  they  prefer 
liberty  to  death,  will  want  some  well-grounded  hope  of  ob- 
taining that  liberty  before  they  imperil  their  lives.  Seo 
Hungary  to-day,  restless  yet  warless,  in  the  talons  of  Aus- 
tria ;  Rome,  under  the  cloven  hoof  of  the  pope ;  France,  in 
the  clutch  of  Napoleon.  Our  slave  brethren  are  of  like 
passions  with  ourselves.  They  have  acted  wisely ;  they  bide 
their  time  ;  it  will  come. 

This  gi-eat  deed,  as  it  must  and  ought  to  appear  in  their 
eyes,  will  be  talked  of  in  every  cabin.  The  underground 
telegraph  will  carry  the-  tidings,  where  no  underground  rail- 


Gilbert  Haven. 


road  yet  runs  its  blessed  trains  of  liberty.  The  two  great 
features  of  the  event  —  the  interposition  of  Northern  white 
men  for  their  deliverance,  the  ghastly  fright  and  feebleness  of 
their  masters  —  will  leave  an  indelible  impress  on  their 
hearts.  Their  consciousness  of  their  rights  as  men  will 
grow  mightily  undev  the  influence  of  the  fact  that  those  of 
the  same  race  as  their  oppressors  are  willing  to  die,  if  need 
be,  for  their  redemption.  The  consciousness  of  their  strength 
will  grow  with  equal  rapidity,  when  they  see  thousands  of 
these  armed  masters  trembling  before  a  dozen  wounded  and 
imprisoned  men,  and  compelled,  by  their  fears,  to  let  a  hand- 
ful of  troops,  mostly  foreigners,  win  their  battles.  You  may 
say.  Is  not  all  this  wrong  ?  Has  the  slave  any  right  to  de- 
mand his  freedom  ?  We  are  not  now  defending  theories,  we 
are  only  stating  facts.  We  are  showing  the  grounds  for  our 
belief  that  this  movement  is  to  hasten  the  glad  day  of  uni- 
versal emancipati'^n.  Yet  we  do  not  shrink  from  nnswering 
the  question.  The  slave  has  a  right  to  demand  his  freedom. 
They  have  a  right  to  unite  in  this  demand.  They  have  a 
right  to  fight  for  it  if  it  is  refused  them.  It  is  not  their  up- 
rising that  is  to  be  condemned  —  it  is  the  resistance  to  that 
uprising.  It  is  the  master,  throttling  the  slave,  and  thrusting 
him  into  a  bloody  grave,  if  he  dare  say  "  I  will  be  free ! "  that 
is  the  great  criminal  before  God  and  man ;  not  the  slave, 
claiming  to  exercise  his  inherent  and  inalienable  rights,  and 
resisting  him  who  opposes  him. 

Can  you  find  fault  with  this — you,  whose  government  is 
based  on  that  great  sentence  wrought  out  in  the  fires  of  a 
fierce  rebellion,  ^^AU  men  are  created  free  and  equal "  ?  You, 
whose  highest  boast  is  that  you  descend  from  revolutionary 
fathers  —  whose  greatest  holiday  is  that  v/hereon  they  pro- 
claimed their  independence  from  an  ancient  but  unjust  power; 
whose  whole  creed,  of  whatever  party — Democratic,  Ameri- 
can, or  Republican — is,  "All  government  must  be  based  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed."   "  Who  is  blind  like  my  servanlj 


Gilbert  Haven. 


or  deaf,  as  the  messenger  I  have  sent  ?  "  You  do  not  shrink 
from  applying  your  formula  to  Italy,  and  France,  and  Ire- 
land, and  every  where,  save  to  your  own  countrymen,  whose 
fathers  were  as  valiant  as  ours,  In  that  great  insurrection 
against  Britain. 

But  we  dare  not  say  that  wicked  thing  and  sin  against 
God.  We  dare  not  affirm  that  any  child  of  Adam,  any  child 
of  God,  has  not  the  same  right  to  himself  that  we  have ;  and 
if  he  can  secure  it,  without  bloodshed,  has  a  right  to  take  it. 
If  he  can  obtain  it  only  by  bloodshed,  it  is  not  for  us,  with 
our  ceaseless  praises  of  Kossuth,  and  Garibaldi,  and  Wash- 
ington, to  say  him  nay.*  God  help  him  to  his  rights  without 
the  shedding  of  a  drop  of  human  blood !  God  help  him  to 
his  rights  if,  like  Israel,  he  shall  see  fit  to  have  him  thrust 
into  freedom  by  the  terror-stricken,  sorrow-stricken  inasters  ; 
made  so  now,  as  then,  by  the  Angel  Jehovah,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  himself. 

There  v.ill  be  no  such  redemption,  for  the  slave  has  no 
thirst  for  revenge.  Great  and  numerous  as  are  the  tempta- 
tions to  it,  no  such  cry  has  ever  leaped  in  his  soul,  much  less 
from  his  lips.  Some  there  may  be,  of  the  many  Lcgrees, 
that  may  have  commended  to  their  lips  the  chalice  of  agony 
they  have  so  foully  forced  upon  their  brethren.  But  these 
revenges  will  be  rare.  No  such  design  moves  the  hearts  of 
their  sympathizers.  He  who  has  gone  farthest  in  this  work 
of  neighborly  love  and  duty,  expressly  and  repeatedly  denies 
the  intention  of  creating  or  allowing  a  bloody  insurrection. 
"  I  never  did  intend,"  he  says,  "  murder  or  treason,  or  the 
destruction  of  property,  or  to  excite  or  incite  the  slaves  to 
rebellion,  or  to  make  insurrection.  I  never  encouraged  any 
man  to  do  so,  but  always  discouraged  any  idea  of  that  kind." 

*  Are  not  onr  eulngies,  andstntues.  nnd  monuments  of  Washington  —  tJie  pcculinr 
paasion  nf  om-  timi;  —  designi  d  by  I'rovidcnce  to  prepare  u8  to  wvltonie  tliat  Greater 
than  WasUingtou,  who  may  yet  arise  from  the  uppresiud  race  to  lead  them  to 
Freedom  7 


Gilbert  Haven. 


Let  us  refrain  from  charging  these  dead  and  djing  men,  who 
have  sacrificed  their  lives  for  the  freedom  of  a  despised 
people,  with  any  such  imputation.  Let  us  rejoice  that  other 
human  agents  are  in  this  work  beside  Pliaraoh  and  his  bond- 
men, and  that  their  external  sympathies  and  energies  will 
peacefully  melt  the  iron  from  these  necks.  "VVe  have  only 
said  that,  in  the  dread  alternative  of  freedom  through  blood, 
or  perpetual  slavery,  we  have  no  right,  as  men  or  as  Chris- 
tians, to  decide  for  the  latter.  For  consider,  that  one  quarter 
of  a  million  hold  four  millions  of  innocent  people  in  chains. 
By  our  American  arithmetic  the  majority  rules.  Apply  the 
rule  here  and  let  it  peaceably  work  itself  out.  If  violence 
attend  its  working,  ask  yourself  which  is  the  better  —  the  short 
but  violent  conflict  of  twelve  men,  with  their  one  pi'Ctended 
owner,  or  the  violent  subjugation  of  those  men  and  their 
posterity.  On  the  one  hand  some  masters  slain,  some  ma- 
trons dishonored,  some  falsely  rich  made  poor,  and  then  liberty, 
equality,  fraternity  in  all  generations  ;  no  chains,  no  whips, 
no  pollution,  no  forced,  unconsecrated  marriages  of  lovers, 
no  separation  of  families,  no  robbery  of  a  man's  labor  and  its 
rewards,  of  all  chances  of  elevation,  socially  and  mentally, 
of  all  the  rights  which  all  men  respect  and  strive  after.  On 
the  other  hand,  generations  upon  generations  of  these  mil- 
lions suffering  unspeakable  loss,  and  shames,  and  agonies. 
There  will  be  no  war  nor  bloodshed,  thanks  to  the  great 
Korthern,  the  great  Christian  sentiment ;  but  if  there  were, 
God  has  often  blessed  it,  and  might  again. 

"We  have  dwelt  on  the  great  central  grounds  for  our  hopes. 
The  morning  cometh,  if  night  yet  hangs  black  and  blacker 
over  us.  We  cannot  close  without  adverting  to  a  few  sub- 
sidiary blessings  this  mournful  event  will  produce  :  — 

1st.  It  will  lead  to  a  more  general  recognition  of  our  one- 
ness of  blood  and  destiny  with  the  despised  race.    Tlie  pix^^t 
movements  of  this  great  reform   have  made  astonishijig 
changes  in  the  Northern  feeling.    The  colored  race  to-day  are 
12 


134 


Gilbert  Haven. 


treated  with  a  thousand-fold  more  respect  and  fraternal  fa-» 
miliarity  than  -they  were  twenty  years  ago.  Yet  there  re- 
mains much  to  be  done.  Our  walls  of  prejudice  still  rise  high 
between  us  and  them.  "We  must  tear  them  down.  "We  must 
cease  separating  them  from  us  in  our  churches  —  perpetuat- 
ing, under  another  form,  the  negro-pew  abomination  of  our 
fathers.  We  must  open  the  doors  of  our  schools  and  colleges 
to  them,  not  only  as  scholars,  but  as  teachers,  if  they  show 
themselves  capable.  We  must  let  them  enter  our  shops  as 
apprentices,  our  stores  as  clerks,  our  firms  as  partners.  We 
must  open  the  doors  of  all  our  varied  departments  of  human 
enterprise,  and  say  to  them,  "  Show  yourselves  capable,  we 
will  show  ourselves  liberal."  How  high  the  walls  that  now 
hem  them  in !  how  narrow  and  poor  the  soil  they  are  per- 
mitted to  cultivate  !  The  lightest  quadroon,  no  less  than  his 
darkest  kindred,  is  cabined,  cribbed,  confined  within  the  range 
of  one  or  two  modes  of  industry,  and  they  the  least  intelli- 
gent and  remunerative.  I  heard  a  worthy  lady  say,  not  long 
since,  she  might  allow  one  of  this  class  to  work  in  her  kitchen, 
she  should  revolt  from  ,  letting  her  sew  for  her.  However 
light  in  hue,  however  neat  and  nimble  in  this  most  womanly 
of  accomplishments,  she  could  not  avail  herself  of  it  to  get  a 
living  in  that  family.  Could  she  in  yours  ?  We  must  crucify 
this  lust  of  pride  and  caste,  if  we  would  be  the  friends  of 
Christ,  if  we  would  deal  truly  and  justly  with  the  slave  and 
his  master.  No  one  act  in  the  whole  movement,  thus  far,  can 
contribute  to  this  end  what  the  deeds,  done  and  suffered  by 
John  Brown  and  his  associates,  will  do.  That  sublime  speech, 
on  receiving  his  sentence  —  so  manly,  so  womanly,  so  full  of 
generosity  and  frankness,  full  of  modesty  and  courage  —  has 
a  few  sentences  that,  with  the  deeds  that  accompany  them, 
will  be  living  forces  for  the  cleansing  of  this  nation  from  the 
base  prejudices  that  now  infect  it.  Hear  him,  and  let  his 
words  work  their  perfect  work  in  all  your  hearts :  "  Had  I 
interfered  in  the  manner  which  I  admit,  and  which  I  admit 


Gilbert  Haven. 


135 


has  been  fairly  proved  —  for  I  admire  the  truthfulness  and 
candor  of  the  greater  portion  of  the  witnesses  who  have 
testified  in  this  case  —  had  I  so  interfered  in  behalf  of  the 
rich,  the  powerful,  the  intelligent,  the  so-called  great,  or  in 
behalf  of  any  of  their  friends,  either  father,  mother,  brother, 
sister,  wife,  or  children,  or  any  of  that  class,  and  suffered 
and  sacrificed  what  I  have  in  this  interference,  it  would  have 
been  all  right,  and  every  man  in  this  court  would  have 
deemed  it  an  act  worthy  of  reward  rather  than  punishment. 
This  court  acknowledges,  too,  as  I  suppose,  the  validity  of  the 
law  of  God.  I  see  a  book  kissed,  which  I  suppose  to  be  the 
Bible,  or  at  least  the  New  Testament,  which  teaches  me  that 
all  things  whatsoever  I  would  that  men  should  do  to  me,  I 
should  do  even  so  to  them.  It  teaches  me  further  to  remem- 
ber them  that  are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them.  I  endeav- 
ored to  act  up  to  that  instruction.  I  say  I  am  yet  too  young 
to  understand  that  God  is  any  respecter  of  persons.  I  believe 
that  to  have  interfered  as  I  have  done,  —  as  I  have  always 
freely  admitted  I  have  done,  —  I  have  done  in  behalf  of  his 
despised  poor  no  wrong,  but  right." 

Another  benefit  is  the  new  life  it  will  give  to  the  great  and 
varied  modes  which  have  long  been  at  work  against  this 
wrong.  Had  it  not  been  for  their  previous  activity,  it  would 
have  been  utterly  powerless  for  good  or  evil.  Twenty-five 
years  ago  such  an  act  would  have  created  no  general  uproar. 
The  slave  power  was  too  strong  —  the  anti-slave  power  too 
weak.  It  is  far  different  now.  The  speeches,  and  sermons, 
and  editorials,  and  votes,  and  prayers,  of  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury have  not  been  without  their  effect.  The  quickening  of 
the  moral  sense  of  the  nation,  the  increase  of  sympathy  and 
fraternity  with  the  oppressed,  the  collisions  of  churches  and 
parties,  the  very  fierceness  of  the  wrath  of  the  slaveholder,  have 
all  been  as  fuel  preparing  for  this  spark.  The  quenching  of 
this  spark  will  not  cause  the  work  to  cease.  It  will  go  on  as 
never  before.    Not  arraying  the  North  against  the  South,  but 


136 


Gilbert  Haven. 


the  whole  nation,  North  and  South,  against  this  sin.  The 
end  is  at  hand.  Let  us  not  be  weary  in  well  doing  until  that 
end  is  reached.  However  hostile  to  this  great  work  this  en- 
terprise first  appeared,  new  light  is  breaking  upon  the  general 
mind.  The  party  journals  who  fancied  their  party  aims  were 
ruined,  are  gaining  their  better  reason.  Let  every  right  way 
of  assailing  the  trembling  fortress  not  cease,  because  of  this 
diversion.  They  will  not  cease.  The  fires  of  Freedom  will 
burn  the  brighter,  for  that  which  seemed  to  quench  the  flame 
is  but  fuel.  The  peaceful  triumph  must  be  hastened  by  the 
very  failure  of  any  scheme  which  seems  to  be  infected 
with  war. 

Finally.  This  will  not  be  the  least  beneficial  in  stilling  the 
haughty  and  horrible  assumptions  of  the  leaders  and  man- 
agers of  the  Slaveocracy.  Tliey  have  preached  doctrines 
from  the  stump,  the  hall  of  legislation,  the  pulpit,  the  bench, 
in  the  last  ten  years,  more  blasphemous,  more  Satanic  than 
any  that  have  been  uttered  in  the  civilized  world  since  Chris- 
tianity overthrew  Paganism.  No  bull  of  the  Vatican  in  the 
inidnight  point  of  the  dark  ages,  no  Torquemada  defence 
of  the  Inquisition,  ever  made  half  as  ungodly  apologies  or  an- 
nounced half  as  demoniacal  decrees,  as  the  Southern  press 
and  pulpit  have  done  in  this  last  decade ;  and  they  were 
waxing  worse  and  worse.  A.  slave  code  for  the  ten-itories, 
slave  trade  for  their  harbors,  slave  transportation  over  the 
whole  country;  this  is  their  avowed  programme.  Their 
strides  have  been  rapid  and  vast ;  their  steps  are  raised  for 
mightier  paces.  This  infernal  march  —  I  speak  soberly  and 
solemnly  —  this  tramp  of  men,  possessed  by  him  whose  name 
is  Legion,  over  all  human  and  divine  law  and  life,  nas  sud- 
denly been  made  to  halt.  They  have  seen  the  Angel  of  the 
Lord ;  tliey  are  pale  and  piteous ;  they  cry  for  quarter, 
though  his  sword  has  not  left  his  thigh.  Where,  now,  is 
your  senatorial  imperiousness  ?  Wliere  your  judicial  per- 
versions of  law  and  history  ?   Where  your  executive  hauteur  ? 


Gilbert  Haven. 


137 


Tlieir  demands,  decisions,  decrees  suddenly  cease.  They  will 
revive  them  again,  but  with  bated  breath.  Outwardly  they 
may  be  more  vociferous  and  abominable,  but  inwardly  they 
fear  and  whisper :  "  See  there !  that  strange,  awful  sight ; 
how  it  burns  our  eyeballs  !  Northern  whites  as  mad  for  Free- 
dom as  we  are  for  Slavery.  Made  so  by  us,  the^  a'-e  adopt- 
ing our  tactics  and  our  weapons.  As  we  have  murdered  men 
for  Slavery  in  Kansas  —  as  we  have  struck  down  great  and 
high  defenders  of  Freedom  and  the  Constitution,  in  the  Senate 
House  —  they  are  murdering  us  in  the  cause  of  Liberty ;  they 
are  arming  our  slaves  for  their  freedom.  We  shall  lose  our 
lives,  perhaps  ;  we  shall  certainly  lose  our  property  and  our 
power."  They  see  in  this  more  than  votes,  more  than  the 
triumph  of  any  political  party  — they  see  the  death  of 
Slavery.  They  see  themselves  the  murderers ;  the  favorite 
offspring  of  their  lust  of  pride,  and  power,  and  wealth,  dies 
by  their  own  Iiands.  "Well  may  we  say  to  them,  as  our 
prophet  bard  of  Freedom  did  to  their  great  leader,  Calhoun, 
years  ago,  when  a  less  fright  congealed  his  soul :  — 

"  Are  these  your  tones  -whose  treble  notes  of  fear 
"Wail  in  the  wind  ?   And  do  ye  shake  to  hear, 
Actason-like,  the  bay  of  your  own  hounds, 
Spurning  the  leash  and  leaping  o*er  their  bounds  ? 
Sore  baffled  statesmen,  when  your  eager  hand, 
"With  game  afoot,  unslipped  the  hungry  pack. 
To  hunt  down  Freedom  in  her  chosen  band, 
Had  ye  no  fears  that,  ere  long,  doubling  back. 
These  dogs  of  yours  might  snuff  on  Slavery's  track  ? " 

Let  their  proud  knees  quake.  They  ought  to  fall  before 
their  slaves  with  cries  of  forgiveness  for  their  inhuman  con- 
duct towards  them  ;  before  their  country,  asking  her  pardon 
for  the  dishonor  with  which  they  have  stained  her  fair  fame 
before  the  world  ;  and,  above  all,  before  their  God,  imploring 
his  mercy  for  their  false  and  cruel  treatment  of  his  truth  and 
children.  This  little  event  will  be  magnified  by  them  a 
thousand  fold;  yet,  perhaps,  not  too  higlily.    May  it  lead 

them  to  instant  penitence,  and  its  all-important  work. 
12* 


138 


Gilbert  Haven. 


And  now,  my  friends,  let  me  say,  in  closing,  if  I  have 
spoken  aught  that  offends  your  pi'esent  judgment,  weigli  it 
carefully  before  you  reject  it.  I  have  said  only  what  1  have 
thought,  and  prayed,  and  spoken  for  years.  I  believe  no 
such  sin""  is  laid  at  the  door  of  any  nation  as  is  laid  upon  us. 
I  believe  no  such  sufferings  are  seen  by  the  all-loving  Om- 
niscience in  the  wide  earth,  as  he  sees  in  the  bi-easts  of  mul- 
titudes of  powerless  victims  in  the  Southern  shambles.  I 
have  spoken  in  the  interest  of  no  party.  Politics  are  tossed 
on  this  wild  and  mighty  sea  that  sweeps  over  the  Avhole  land, 
as  fishing  boats  off  Newfoundland, 

When  descends  on  the  Atlantic 
The  gigantic 

Storm- wind  of  the  Equinox." 

So  are  rocking  all  other  great  interests.  The  Church  fears 
her  dissolution ;  free  labor,  in  its  grand  and  lesser  divisions, 
fears  her  destruction ;  the  throes  of  this  great  birth  of  free- 
dom and  fraternity  to  the  least  among  the  races  of  men,  make 
all  classes  and  callings  to  writhe.  Yet  there  shall  be  no 
death  of  any  vital  force.  Government,  Religion,  the  Church, 
the  Gospel,  free  and  varied  industry,  all  shall  live,  and  live  a 
higher  life  for  the  struggles  through  which  they  are  now  pass- 
ing. I  speak  with  no  hardness  to  the  slaveholder.  Some  of 
those  that  I  know,  I  esteem.  All  God  has  loved,  and  has  given 
his  only-beloved  Son,  that  they,  believing  on  him,  might  not 
perish.  May  they  receive  the  grace  of  God  in  its  fulness, 
and  let  it  lead  them  to  give  that  which  is  just  and  equal  to 
the  slave,  lest  "  the  great  and  terrible  day  of  the  Lord  come." 
Would  to  God  they  would  treat  their  fellow-citizens  in  bond- 
age as  our  fathers  treated  theirs  ;  declare  Slavery  incompati- 
ble with  their  constitutions,  and  that  it  ceases  henceforth  to 
exist  in  their  midst.  So  easy,  so  peaceful  is  their  way  of 
duty  in  this  matter. 

I  have  spoken  in  no  love  or  expectation  of  a  murderous 
uprising,  or  of  armed  intervention  to  aid  them  in  rising. 
Their  rights  I  have  defended.    Their  duty  it  is  not  for  me  to 


Gilbert  Haven. 


139 


decide.  I  have  striven  to  remember  them  as  bound  with 
them.  I  have  seen  them  as  they  are  to-day,  sitting  under 
vines  and  fig-trees  not  their  own,  with  every  thing  to  molest 
and  make  them  afraid.  I  have  seen  them,  as  they- are  plod- 
ding in  coffles,  or  crowded  in  holds,  on  their  dreadful  march  to 
their  unknown  fate.  With  bleeding  feet,  and  backs,  and 
hearts,  they  are  rcourged  from  the  miserable  hut  of  their 
childhood,  to  the  miserable  grave  of  their  early  prime  —  from 
the  dungeon  of  ice  to  the  dungeon  of  fire.  They  have  no 
rights,  says  the  solemn  and  supreme  tribunal  of  the  land  — 
no  rights  which  white  men  are  bound  to  respect.  The  hus- 
band has  no  right  to  his  wife,  which  you  are  bound  to  respect ; 
the  maiden  no  right  to  her  honor ;  the  mother  no  right  to  her 
babe ;  the  babe  no  right  to  its  mother ;  the  mind  no  right  to 
culture ;  the  soul  no  right  to  its  Saviour ;  no  rights  which 
^ohite  men  are  bound  to  respect !  My  God,  what  a  decree ! 
Let  us  obey  God  rather  than  man,  and  hold  in  higher  respect 
tlieir  natural  and  divine  rights,  for  the  very  contempt  and  loss 
they  suffer,  at  the  hands  of  those  now  so  powerful  and  so 
cruel. 

Yet  let  us  not  be  discouraged.  This  deluge  of  hell  has 
heard  a  voice  it  will  obey,  saying,  "  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come 
but  no  further,  and  here  shall  thy  proud  Avaves  be  stayed." 
The  very  dilemma  of  the  captors  of  these  men  is  itself  pro- 
pitious. They  dare  not  hang  them ;  they  dare  not  release 
them.  If  they  pardon  John  Brown  it  is  saying  to  all  the 
world,  "  "We  are  verily  guilty.  Any  man  may  come  among 
us,  invite  our  slaves  to  assume  their  freedom,  give  them  arras  to 
defend  that  freedom,  and  even  slay  those  who  seem  to  oppose 
it,  and  yet  Ave  dare  not  hang  him.  Why?  Because  we 
know  he  is  right,  and  we  are  wrong."  They  can  never  defend 
their  system  again  if  John  Brown  is  allowed  to  live. 

But  if  he  dies,  if  he  mounts  the  scaffold  for  Freedom,  Avhich 
may  Heaven  prevent,  he  will  slay  the  monster  which  seems 
thus  to  slay  him.    He  will  make  the  scaffold  in  this  land  as 


140 


Gilbert  Haven. 


sacred  and  potent  as  it  became  in  England  when  Vane,  and 
Sidney,  and  Russell  mounted  it.  Such  a  thrill  of  indignation 
and  remorse  'will  freeze  the  soul  of  every  man.  North  and 
South,  slaveholder  and  abolitionist,  as  never  struck  through 
the  heart  of  a  great  Christian  nation  before.  Let  John 
Brown's  great  words  be  fulfilled  :  "  Now,  if  it  is  deemed 
necessary  that  I  should  forfeit  my  ]ife  for  the  furtherence  of 
the  ends  of  justice,  and  mingle  my  blood  further  with  the 
blood  of  my  children,  and  with  the  blood  of  millions  in  this 
slave  country  whose  rights  are  disregarded  by  wicked,  cruel, 
and  unjust  enactments,  I  say  let  it  be  done." 

Out  of  that  death  life  will  leap ;  life  for  those  miserable 
millions  now  worse  than  dead.  To  his  memory  honors  will 
be  paid ;  statues  will  bear  his  stern,  mild  features  to  posterity ; 
and  when  Virginia  is  free,  as  free  she  will  be,  one  of  her  first 
acts  will  be  to  erect  a  monument,  to  his  memory,  on  the 
very  spot  where  disgrace,  defeat  and  death  now  overwhelm 
him  —  as  one  of  the  first  acts  of  this  Commonwealth  .after 
she  had  achieved  her  liberty,  was  to  raise  the  lofty  memo- 
rial to  the  "  monomaniac  "  Warren,  and  his  slain  and  defeat- 
ed comrades,  rebels,  like  these,  against  a  legal  but  tyrannical 
power. 

May  God  help  us  all  to  give  ourselves  to  Him,  in  the  con- 
secration of  a  holy  heart  and  life,  and  then  to  the  great  moral 
warfare  with  every  vice,  chiefest  of  which,  in  the  ciy  of  the 
down-trodden,  and  the  crime  of  the  down-treader,  is  Ameri- 
can Slavery. 


11. 


Sermon  by  Rev.  George  B.  Cheever* 

IT  were  a  cheering  and  blessed  gratulation,  could  we  assure 
each  other  this  day  that  this  precious  promise  is  ours, 
and  that  wr  behold  the  brightening  signs  of  its  fulfilment. 
But  as  a  promise,  it  has  a  condition.  If  judgment  do  return 
unto  righteousness,  if  wicked  statutes,  and  the  wicked  obedi- 
ence of  them  and  the  systems  of  wickedness  which  they 
establish  and  sustain,  are  swept  away,  and  the  people  return 
unto  God,  to  do  justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with 
him,  then  indeed  he  will  be  with  them,  he  is  with  them,  and 
cannot  forsake  them.  And  if  there  be  the  signs  of  such  re- 
turn, the  very  beginning  of  it  is  proof  that-  God's  mercy  has 
begun.  How  blessed  and  glorious  would  be  our  condition,  if 
judgment  were  return^u  unto  righteousness!  And  it  must  be 
so  returned,  so  brought  back,  and  we  with  it,  or  God  must 
cast  us  off.  Let  us  praise  God  for  every  record  of  such 
return  in  others,  and  for  all  the  instruction,  drawn  from  their 
success,  as  to  the  methods  by  which  the  removal  of  a  great 
evil  was  accomplished,  the  renunciation  of  a  great  wicked- 
ness effected,  a  great  and  peaceful  revolution  brought  about, 
where  utter  ruin  had  been  threatened.    We  need  all  the  light 

•  Entitled :  "  Tho  Examplo  and  the  Method  of  Emancipation  by  the  Constitution  of 
our  Country,  and  the  Word  of  God."  Preached  in  the  Church  of  the  Puritans,  Thanks- 
giving Day,  Nov.  24, 1859,  by  Bev.  George  B.  Cliecver,  D.  D.,  from  Ptalm  xciv.  14, 15 : 

"For  the  Lord  will  not  cast  off  his  people,  neither  will  he  forsake  his  inheritance. 
But  judgment  Bhall  return  unto  rightcouBncss,  and  all  the  upiiglit  in  heart  sball  fol* 
low  it." 

(141) 


142  George  B.  Cheever. 

from  such  examples  that  we  can  possibly  gain,  at  the  same 
time  that  all  the  light  from  all  the  centuries  can  never  show 
any  other  way  of  redemption  from  sin  than  by  repentanco  of 
it,  nor  any  national  salvation  but  that  of  righteousness  and 
justice.  Nations,  as  well  as  individuals,  have  a  time  when 
they  can  repent  and  a  time  in  which  they  cannot.  They  may 
pass  the  line  of  destiny  where  there  is  no  more  space  of  re- 
pentance, though  it  be  sought  carefully  with  tears. 

Aristotle  somewhere  in  his  works  has  said  that  we  are 
under  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  mistakes  of  our  prede- 
cessors, and  he  might  have  added,  for  the  example  of  their 
iniquities,  provided  we  will  take  them  as  a  warning,  and  lay 
the  lesson  to  heart.  But  how  much  greater,  and  in  a  true 
and  literal  sense,  without  any  sarcasm  or  double  meaning,  is 
our  debt  of  gratitude  to  those  wJio  have  set  us  the  example 
of  great  and  heroic  disinterestedness,  to  individuals  who  by  a 
life,  or  a  single  action  out  of  the  bosom  of  a  life,  have  set  a 
light  in  the  firmament  of  our  practical  ethics  like  the  North 
Star,  a  light  of  benevolence  and  glory;  or  to  nations  more 
rarely  than  to  individuals ;  and,  indeed,  how  rare,  how  almost 
solitary,  is  the  example  of  true  national  greatness,  disinter- 
estedness, high  moral  and  religious  principle ;  faithfulness  to 
Freedom  as  a  principle,  and  not  merely  as  an  interest,  faith- 
fulness to  that  which  is  another  man's,  another  race's,  and  not 
merely  to  that  which  is  our  own  ! 

But  if  we  have  not  been  faithful  in  that  which  is  another 
man's,  who  shall  give  you  that  which  is  your  own  ?  This 
principle  of  justice  and  of  retribution,  as  certainly  as  God  is 
true,  he  will  act  upon  with  us,  as  a  people,  in  reference  to  the 
race  of  strangers  he  has  thrown  upon  our  care.  The  Avord 
stranger  is,  in  God's  law,  a  sacred  word.  The  Hebrews  were 
strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt ;  v/e  know  the  principles  of 
responsibility,  duty,  benevolence,  that  God  has  illustrated  by 
them.  A  race  of  strangers  under  our  power,  thrown  upon 
our  protection ;  a  race  whom  we  can  easily  oppress,  if  we 
choose,  but  whom  we  are  bound  to  bless,  to  raise  them  to  a 


George  B.  Cheever.  143 


participation  in  our  own  privileges,  to  love  them  as  we  love 
ourselves,  are  a  most  sacred  responsibility  and  trust,  a  mighty, 
peremptory,  decisive  trial  of  our  character.  Love  ye  the 
stranger,  for  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  Cursed 
be  he  that  perverteth  the  judgment  of  the  stranger !  Ye 
shall  have  one  manner  of  law,  as  well  for  the  stranger  as  for 
the  native  of  your  own  race.  The  laws  of  God  are  plain ; 
the  principles  of  justice  and  benevolence  J^re  plain  ;  we  admit 
them  in  regard  to  Germans,  French,  Italians,  Swiss,  Irish, 
English ;  all,  indeed,  on  earth,  whom  we  can  use  for  votes ; 
all,  save  only  the  Africans,  the  great  race  of  strangers  whom 
we  have  kidnapped  and  compelled  hither,  and  in  justice  to- 
wards whom  God  calls  upon  us  therefore  with  a  louder  call 
than  that  of  mere  benevolence. 

For  we  have  made  them  the  subjects  of  a  vaster  and  more 
cruel  oppression  than  any  civilized  nation  under  heaven  ever 
practised  towards  any  people ;  and  according  to  the  principle 
of  human  nature,  —  that  whomsoever  a  man  injures,  him  he 
thenceforth  hates, —  we  hate  them  with  an  intensity  propor- 
tioned to  the  injury  we  have  done  them  ;  we  make  them  the 
standing  object  of  cruelty  and  contempt,  and  use  them  as  a 
foil  for  our  own  greatness.  Then  observe  the  working  of 
prejudice ;  we  have  no  hatred  to  them,  or  to  their  color,  as 
slaves,  as  chattels  ;  but  we  abhor  them  and  their  color  as  free- 
men, and  pronounce  them  a  nuisance.  As  entitled  to  a  shax"e 
in  our  privileges,  our  citizenship,  our  rights,  the  rights  of 
humanity,  we  hate  them,  their  color,  and  their  race,  with  a 
hatred  that,  without  any  thing  of  the  dignity  or  nobleness  of 
enmity,  is  compounded  out  of  the  meanest  elements  of  fraud, 
fear,  and  selfishness.  This  is  an  inevitable  consequence  of 
the  vast  accumulating  injuries  we  have  heaped  upon  them. 

Now,  here  they  are ;  but  they  have  groA/n  at  length  beyond 
the  possibility  of  management  as  a  purely  selfish  speculation, 
as  an  article  of  profit,  and  we  know  not  what  to  do  with 
them.  They  puzzle  us,  they  perplex  us,  they  terrify  us.  We 
are  like  murderers,  (as  when  the  Dred  Scott  decision  was 


144  George  B.  Cheever. 


passed  and  endured,  it  was  prophesied  we  should  be,)  not  know- 
ing what  to  do  with  the  body,  endeavoring  to  bury  and  hide  the 
carcass  of  our  assassinated  victim.  But  the  trampled  ground, 
the  fresh  dirt,  the  very  leaves  matted  on  the  grave,  disclose 
the  crime  ;  neither  can  we  keep  a  seal  upon  the  sepulchre  of 
the  freedom  of  a  morally  assassinated,  but  still  living  and 
growing,  race.  "We  would  be  glad  to  keep  them  forever,  pro- 
vided we  could  keep  them  as  slaves  /  provided  we  could  still 
harness  and  concentrate  their  energies  as  chattels,  and  compel 
them  to  drag  forward  the  juggernaut  of  our  political  grandeur 
and  power ;  provided  we  could  limit  them  to  that  point,  where 
oppression  of  them  is  convenient  for  ourselves,  where  we  can 
serve  ourselves  of  them,  as  they  are,  and  prevent  simply  their 
extension  to  the  point  of  inconvenience,  agitation,  or  intrusion 
on  the  monopoly  of  free  labor  for  the  whites.  As  profitable 
property,  we  like  their  character,  degraded,  and  their  color, 
black;  as  men,  Ave  hate  and  abhor  both  the  color  and  the 
race. 

But  here  they  are.  What  shall  we  do  with  thenfi  ?  It 
begins  to  be  the  perplexity  of  a  hunter  with  a  wolf  by  the 
ears ;  you  dare  not  let  him  go,  you  cannot  keep  him ;  there 
is  no  one  to  kill  him  while  you  hold  him.  Meantime,  God's 
voice  thunders,  Let  m^  people  go !  The  Christian  Pharaoh 
in  our  Egypt  answers,  under  instruction  of  theological  tech- 
nicalities about  malum  in  se.  Who  is  the  Lord,  that  I  should 
obey  his  voice  to  let  the  people  go  ?  I  know  not  such  a  Lord, 
nor  such  a  theology.  I  will  not  let  them  go.  And  again  God 
thunders,  Let  my  people  go !  And,  except  the  company  of 
Jannes  and  Jarabres,  with  their  magicians  in  the  Americo- 
Egyptian  Church,  turned  the  claim  into  ridicule,  denying  its 
divine  origin,  even  the  modern  Pharaoh  would  come  to  his 
senses  and  believe.  But  the  heart  is  hardened  more  and 
more,  and  step  -by  step  the  very  processes  of  exasperation 
and  increase  in  the  oppression  are  gone  through,  by  which  of 
old  the  slaveholders  drew  down  upon  themselves  the  wliole 
appointed  catalogue  of  plagues  for  their  destruction. 


George  B.  Cheever. 


145 


But  can  we  let  them  go  with  safety  ?  Even  if  we  could  not, 
we  have  no  right  to  keep  them ;  no  more  than  a  man's  not 
being  able  to  give  up  a  stolen  estate,  without  reducing  his 
family  to  poverty,  gives  him  a  right  to  the  robbery,  or  releases 
him  from  the  obligation  to  restore.  But  even  this  selfish 
question  God  in  his  mercy  has  answered ;  has  provided  a  most 
marvellous,  explicit,  categorical  answer,  in  the  case  of  British 
Emancipation,  the  lessons  of  which  we  must  solemnly  ponder. 
And  one  of  those  lessons,  from  experience  as  well  as  of  native 
fundamental  principle,  is  this :  that  to  hold  those  human  be- 
ings as  property,  and  still  pretend  to  seek  to  raise  them,  until 
they  are,  according  to  our  pronouncement,  worthy  of  being 
set  free,  is  both  an  insult  and  a  crime.  We  cannot  raise  them, 
as  slaves,  to  freedom ;  we  cannot  raise  them  till  we  free  them, 
till  we  acknowledge  their  right  and  our  duty,  and  begin  its 
performance ;  till  we  are  seen  setting  at  work  the  process  of 
striking  oiF  their  fetters.  It  is  a  vast,  terrific  libel  to  say  that 
they  owe  their  slavery  to  their  animal  degradation,  when  we 
know  that  they  owe  the  perpetuity  of  their  degradation  to  their 
being  kept  in  slavery,  and  that  every  generation  I'etained  in 
sucli  slavery,  under  the  pretence  of  not  being  prepared  for 
freedom,  is  a  generation  stolen  from  the  birth.  To  justify 
this  form  of  man-stealing,  the  indecent  and  horrible  maxim 
of  slave-law,  partus  sequitur  ventrem,  is  adopted  and  baptized 
in  the  slaveholding  theology,  and  along  with  it  the  most  in- 
credible inhumanities,  monstrosities,  impossibilities  in  morals, 
have  been  presented  to  the  Southern  conscience,  and  deliber- 
ately accepted  as  truths  divine,  while  the  plainest  propositions 
of  righteousness,  and  requisitions  of  the  Word  of  Gcd,  have 
been  scornfully  rejected  as  fanaticism.  It  will  not  now  be 
strange  if  God  says,  (nay ;  the  strangeness  will  be,  if  he  does 
not  say,)  Fill  ye  up,  then,  the  measure  of  your  iniqr'ties. 

In  contrast  and  rebuke  of  such  obstinate  atheism  and 
cruelty,  God  has  given  us  the  glorious  example  in  another 
nation,  of  one  of  the  grandest,  most  unalloyed  triumphs  of 
benevolence  and  justice  over  cruelty  and  wrong,  of  humanity 
13 


146  George  B.  Cheever. 


over  oppression,  of  truth  against  fraud  and  i}  lag,  of  con- 
science and  God's  word  against  wicked  human  law,  of  pvinci-, 
pie  over  policy,  of  Freedom  over  Slavery,  that  the  world  ever 
saw.  It  is  a  thing  of  joy  forever,  a  thing  to  be  eternally  pro- 
claimed and  magnified,  that  a  commercial  nation  has  done  this ; 
a  nation  with  power  and  temptation  to  do  othenvise ;  a  nation 
not  for  itself,  but  for  others ;  a  nation  inspired  with  genuine, 
unselfish,  compassionate  regard  for  the  injured  and  enslaved. 
A  proud,  strong,  conquering,  prosperous  nation  has  done  this ; 
has  paused  in  the  midst  of  her  prosperity  to  examine  her 
policy  before  God ;  to  acknowledge  her  past  injustice  and 
wrong,  to  acknowledge  and  obey  God's  word,  God's  will,  as 
supreme  above  her  own  government  and  authority ;  to  ac- 
knowledge the  claims  of  the  oppressed,  and  to  let  tlie  op- 
pressed go  free,  because  God  commands  it.  I  say  a  great 
commercial  nation  —  the  wealthiest,  most  aggrandized,  and 
lordliest  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe,  at  once  the  most  com- 
mercial and  the  most  ax'istocratic,  with  the  proudest  nobility 
and  the  intensest  trade-spirited  mercantile  community  together, 
under  the  most  conservative  law  faculty  and  jurisprudence ; 
a  great  commercial  nation,  in  the  heart  of  a  money-worshipping 
age,  at  the  cost  of  an  appropriation  in  money  such  as  never 
before  on  earth  was  devoted  by  any  government  to  any  such 
purpose ;  in  the  face  of  an  outcry  of  rage  and  avarice  against 
so  benevolent  a  measure ;  in  the  face  of  the  savage  claim  of 
property  in  man,  and  of  the  remorseless  fury  with  which  that 
claim  was  prosecuted  to  the  last  moment ;  a  great  commer- 
cial power-loving,  money-accumulating  nation,  has  voluntarily 
paused  in  her  great  career  of  conquest  and  of  wealth,  thrown 
from  her  the  considerations  of  a  selfish  expediency,  and  per- 
formed a  national  act  of  self-denying  justice  and  humanity ; 
an  act  both  of  the  government  and  the  people ;  an  act  of 
religion  and  of  religious  zeal  and  duty,  such  as  nations  almost 
never  perform,  and  which,  performed  as  it  was,  with  such  com- 
pleteness, nobleness,  and  majesty  of  principle,  might  almost 
cancel  a  thousand  years  of  European  cruelty  and  crime. 


George  B.  Cheever.  147 


The  Act  of  Emancipation,  which  it  becomes  us  anew  and 
solemnly  to  celebrate  this  day,  to  praise  God  for  it,  and  to 
implore  his  grace  that  it  may  be  initiated  in  our  own  country, 
was  an  act  of  benevolence  and  justice  on  principle.  It  was 
not  a  measure  of  political  economy  or  expediency,  but  of  right 
and  duty,  above  all  expediency,  determining  what  true  expe- 
diency is.  It  was  not  a  question  of  the  superiority  of  free 
labor  over  slave  labor,  or  a  measure  for  the  interest  and  profit 
of  the  whites;  but  it  was  the  admitted  equal  claim  of  the 
blacks  to  freedom  as  well  as  the  whites,  and  the  prosecution 
of  that  claim  for  the  liberty  and  benefit  of  the  enslaved,  for 
the  restitution  to  them  of  the  rights  of  which  they  have  been 
defrauded.  It  was  a  denial  of  any  right  on  the  part  of  the 
whites  to  hold  any  other  race  in  slavery ;  it  was  a  denial  of 
any  right  of  property  in  man,  and  a  refusal  any  longer  to 
admit  any  such  wrong.  It  was  the  undoing  of  such  wrong, 
because  it  was  wrong,  and  the  question  of  its  jjrofitableness 
and  unprofitableness  for  the  nation  committing  such  a  crime 
was  not  a  question,  upon  the  decision  of  which  the  act  of 
emancipation  was  based.  By  a  religious  conscience,  by  the 
power  of  God's  Woi-d,  by  the  grand  ideas  of  justice  and  of 
freedom  swaying  the  popular  mind,  by  the  sentiments,  feel- 
ings, impulses  of  the  popular  heart  against  cruelty,  against 
oppression,  against  Slavery,  the  nation  was  carried  irresistibly 
in  this  granS  movement,  and  triumphed  in  it.  And  it  was,  in 
many  respects,  the  greatest  national  victory  of  right  against 
wrong,  of  conscience  against  selfishness,  that  the  world  ever 
saw. 

As  a  measure  of  political  economy  it  has  been  successful  in 
its  results.  The  West  Indies  are  worth  incalculably  more  to- 
day, under  the  reign  of  Freedom,  than  they  could  have  been 
under  the  continued  injustice  of  Slavery.  But  whether  so  or 
not,  the  honesty,  generosity,  and  justice  of  the  natiorj,  the  ele- 
vation and  integrity  of  character,  the  enthronement  of  the 
right,  the  supremacy  of  the  Word  of  God  as  the  rule  of  right, 
and  of  the  conscience  of  the  nation  as  obedient  to  it,  are  an 


George  B.  Cheever. 


infinite  gain  and  glor j,  not  to  be  measured  by  any  consequences ; 
a  possession  worth  more  than  the  dominion  of  the  globe ;  a 
security  of  future  prosperity  and  freedom  greater  than  ten 
thousand  navies,  ten  thousand  citadels.  Standing  as  they  did 
in  that  act  on  the  side  of  God  and  truth,  of  freedom  and 
humanity,  the  British  government  and  people  have  secured 
not  only  the  freedom  and  happiness  of  the  enslaved,  for  whom 
they  acted,  but  their  own,  of  which  they  did  not  think.  God 
gives,  for  every  such  act,  a  mortgage  on  his  providence  for 
their  protection.  What  they  gained  in  character  alone,  and  in 
the  strength  of  righteousness,  by  that  act,  would  have  been  a 
possession  of  inestimable  value,  outweighing  all  possibihty  of 
loss.  If  the  West  Indies  had  been  sunk  to  the  bottom  of  the 
sea,  and  all  the  colonial  possessions  of  Great  Britain  with  them, 
the  benefit  of  that  act  of  justice  and  benevolence  would  have 
remained,  a  richer  endowment  of  the  kingdom,  than  if  God 
had  created  and  bestowed  a  new  oceanic  Eden  for  its  domin- 
ion and  its  wealth. 

What  we  need  to  lay  to  hejirt  to-day  is  this  lesson.  If  the 
British  people  had  confined  themselves  to  statistical  argu- 
ments about  sugar-canes,  molasses  hogsheads,  prices  of  labor, 
amounts  to  be  screwed  out  of  estates  under  the  lash,  or  to  be 
sacrificed  by  freedom,  they  would  not,  to  this  day,  have  accom- 
plished the  emancipation  of  the  negroes.  It  was  the  con- 
science of  justice,  the  divine  spirit  of  liberty,  tlie  sense  of 
right  and  duty,  the  command  of  God,  the  impulse  of  pity, 
strengthened  and  made  irresistible  by  the  appeal  to  God's 
Word,  and  not  the  mean,  pitiful  consideration  of  any  superior 
profitableness  of  free  labor  over  slave,  that  gained  the  vic- 
tory. It  was  lightning  from  heaven,  and  not  any  blacksmith's 
fire  on  earth,  that  melted  the  chains  of  the  slave,  and  set  him 
free.  Men's  hammers  could  rivet  them,  but  it  required  the 
fire  of  God  to  undo  them.  Nothing  but  principle,  truth  on 
fire  in  the  heart,  could  eve^  set  men  to  this  work.  The  lust 
of  gain  never  will  break  a  fetter  on  the  limbs,  but  it  can  eat 
into  the  soul,  and  cover  it  with  the  tetter  of  despotism.  No 


George  B.  Cheever. 


149 


profits  of  liberty,  nor  even  its  anticipated  gains,  ever  yet  set 
any  people  fx-ee;  the  spirit  of  liberty  must  do  the  liz'st  work, 
regardless  of  any  thing  and  every  thing  but  what  is  just  and 
right.  The  profits  of  liberty  never  yet  built  a  temple,  unless 
the  spirit  of  liberty  first  conquered  the  ground  in  fee  simple 
and  laid  the  foundations. 

We  need  to-day  these  lessons  of  principle,  and  this  assur- 
ance of  the  safety  of  their  application ;  the  safety  of  trusting 
in  God,  and  performing  our  whole  duty  to  Him  and  to  our 
fellow-beings,  leaving  the  consequences  with  Him. 

The  terrible  outbreak  at  Harper's  Ferry  calls  us  anew  to 
the  consideration  of  our  own  duty,  and  of  the  means  by  which 
we  may  avoid  God's  judgments,  and  redeem  our  country  from 
a  wickedness  that  tlireatens  to  consume  us. 

We  must  consider,  first,  our  instruments  of  aggression  and 
of  conquest  against  this  sin,  and  second,  the  manner  and  the 
method  in  which  we  are  to  use  them.  Our  duty  as  Christians 
and  our  duty  as  politicians  comes  into  view,  and  we  shall 
endeavor  to  discriminate. 

Our  instruments  of  aggression  and  of  conquest  against  this 
sin  are  grand  and  mighty :  the  Word  of  God,  rightly  inter- 
preted, and  the  Constitution  of  our  country,  rightly  inter- 
preted. 

But  both  have  been  perverted ;  and  if  in  either  the  perver- 
sion is  suffered  to  become  the  law,  then  we  arc  lost ;  we  can 
do  nothing.  If  the  Word  of  God  is  held  and  applied  in  its 
purity,  you  can  save  even  your  perverted.  Constitution  by  it ; 
can  redeem  your  Constitution  from  the  bondage  of  such  per- 
version, by  the  law  of  the  spirit  of  life  setting  it  free  fi'om  the 
law  of  sin  and  death.  Bring  every  provision  in  it  to  the  bar 
of  God's  Word,  and  show  the  infinite  guilt  of  each  perversion. 
All  the  questions  involved,  of  right  and  wrong,  ought  to  be 
thoroughly,  fervently  discussed,  in  every  aspect,  in  every 
place.  Tliere  ought  to  be  public  mass  meetings,  as  mighty 
crucibles,  heated  by  the  spirit  of  Liberty ;  and  your  theories 
and  your  candidates  must  be  thrown  into  them  and  proved. 
13^' 


i^o  George  B.  Cheever. 


Your  Representatives  and  Senators  ought  to  be  especially 
instructed  and  bound  to  press  every  article  of  the  Constitu-' 
tion  to  its  uttermost  in  favor  of  liberty  and  right.  You  ought 
to  demand  a  declaration  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
that  the  provision  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
against  attainder,  against  ever  suffering  incapacity  or  evil  to 
descend  from  parents  to  children,  may,  and  rightfully  does, 
protect  and  set  free  the  children  of  the  enslaved,  and  that  the 
maxim,  partus  sequitur  ventrem,  is  the  greatest  possible  viola- 
tion of  that  provision. 

In  this  conflict,  it  can  hardly  be  necessary  to  say  that  the 
church  and  ministry  must  stand  higher  than  the  politicians ; 
must  in  fact  lead,  and  not  follow,  with  the  "Word  of  God. 
They  must  not  ask,  What  do  the  politicians  desire?  What  are 
they  willing  to  sanction  and  applaud  ?  How  far  can  we  preach 
against  Slavery  and  not  damage  their  platforms,  or  prevent 
the  availability  of  their  candidates  for  the  Presidency  ?  Let 
us  understand  each  other.  We  welcome  them  to  our  aid,  just 
so  far  as  they  can  follow  after  the  Word  of  God,  and  agree 
with  it,  abstaining  from  putting  into  their  programmes  any 
implication  of  the  sacredness  or  intangibleness  of  Slavery  as 
a  vested  right ;  any  injunction  or  pledge  against  laboring  for 
its  abolition ;  any  assertion  of  the  wrongfulness  of  interfering 
for  the  deliverance  of  the  four  or  five  millions  of  slaves,  now 
groaning  under  such  bondage  in  the  Slave  States.  We  hold 
ourselves,  as  Christians,  commissioned  of  God,  and  bound  in 
conscience  to  labor  for  such  deliverance,  and  it  is  our  positive 
right  and  duty  so  to  do  ;  and,  therefore,  if  any  political  party 
should  set  up  as  a  necessary  qualification  for  the  Presidency 
a  pledge  never  to  seek  the  deliverance  of  the  enslaved,  or  a 
sanction  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  or  of  the  claim  of  prop- 
erty in  man,  that  moment  they  set  themselves  in  opposition 
to  the  Word  of  God,  and  no  true  Cliristian  can  go  with  them. 
They  array  themselves  against  the  Christian  conscience,  rights, 
privileges,  dignity,  and  duty  of  all  who  know  that  they  ought 
to  obey  God  rather  than  man.    If  success  is  the  mission  of 


George  B.  Cheever. 


politicians,  our  mission  from  God  is  to  break  every  yoke,  and 
let  the  oppressed  go  free ;  not  merely  to  labor  against  the 
extension  of  Slavery,  but  for  its  entire  overthrow ;  not  merely 
for  the  white  man's  party,  but  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
enslaved. 

We  are  bound  lo  press  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution  against 
every  letter  of  Slavery,  and  the  •  letter  of  the  Constitution  in 
behalf  of  Freedom  against  every  attempt  of  the  spirit  of 
Slavery.  For  none  can  deny-  that  the  Constitution  was 
framed  for  Freedom.  Neither  is  there  in  it  any  intimation  of 
ever  having  been  designed  or  framed  for  the  whites  only,  and 
not  the  blacks ;  much  less  any  intimation  of  any  guarantee  of 
Slavery,  as  the  condition  either  of  blacks  or  whites,  or  any 
part  of  them.  There  is  no  intimation  in  it  that  any  human 
being  can  be  the  property  of  any  other  human  being.  If 
there  were  any  such  wickedness  it  would  be  a  piratical  Con- 
stitution. There  being  no  shadow  of  such  pretence,  either  in 
spirit  or  letter,  whence  comes  the  daring  assumption  ?  By 
what  superhuman  fraud  transacted,  under  what  spell  of  infer- 
nal incantation,  laying  the  senses,  the  reason,  the  conscience 
of  the  people  asleep,  so  that  they  could  consent  to  such  change 
and  corruption  of  the  character  of  their  rights  ?  By  what 
horrible  mesmerism  of  Satan  do  you  stand  as  a  man  gazing 
motionless  with  staring  eyes,  paralyzed,  not  horrified,  but  in- 
sensible, while  the  assassin  enters  your  dwelling,  carries  away 
your  gold,  murders  your  household,  and  leaves  you  under  such 
a  lunacy,  such  a  spell  of  madness,  such  a  nightmare  of  per- 
dition, that  henceforth  you  walk  about  and  labor  to  convince 
yourself  and  others  that  this  is  all  politically  right,  is  agreea- 
ble to  the  articles  in  your  charter,  is  a  vested  right  of  constitu- 
tional assassins,  with  which  you  must  not  interfere! 

This  is  the  assumption  coolly  made,  even  by  professedly 
Anti-Slavery  politicians,  who  do  not  scruple  to  affirm  that  the 
protection  of  property  in  slaves,  property  in  man,  is  the  busi- 
ness and  proper  work  of  the  Constitution,  and  that,  if  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Law  were  repealed,  they  would  go  in  for 


152  George  B.  Cheever. 


another,  and  for  any  and  all  laws  that  Congress  might  pass, 
sanctioning  and  defending  property  in  man.  This  is  treason 
to  truth,  God,  our  country,  and  our  conntry's  Freedom,  that  if 
rightly  visited,  would  place  the  authors  and  supporters  of  it 
heneath  the  condemnation  appointed  for  it  in  the  Word  of 
God.  Nothing  can  be  more  monstrous,  more  atrocious,  than 
the  foisting  in  of  such  a  claim  and  sanction  of  property  in 
human  beings  into  the  Constitution  of  our  Freedom,  when  not 
only  is  no  possibility  of  such  claim  referred  to,  even  by  inti- 
mation, but  the  thing  is  not  even  named,  is  not  a  subject 
within  the  whole  instrument ;  and  the  whole  aim,  spirit,  pur- 
pose, and  doctrine  of  the  whole  are  against  it,  rendering  it  im- 
possible. 

It  is  a  forgery,  an  infinite  fraud,  a  boundless  rascality,  more 
wicked,  more  permcious,  than  was  ever  perpetrated  in  any 
nation  under  heaven.  There  is  a  case  in  law,  a  case  of  pre- 
tended right  to  made  property,  now  pending  in  New  York, 
between  ihe  State  and  the  City,  as  to  the  possession  of  water 
lots,  filled  in  along  the  shores  of  the  harbor.  Tiiere  was  a 
contract  conveying  all  the  land,  many  years  ago,  to  the  city 
within  the  low-water  mark.  Since  that  day  the  city  has  gone 
on  swelling  and  extending  by  made  land  far  beyond  the  then 
low-water  mark,  and  now  the  State  claims,  and  justly  claims, 
a  title  to  all  the  property  thus  created  by  the  city,  outside  the 
original  water-line.  There  stands,  pictured,  in  this  very  case, 
our  Constitution,  and  the  made  land  of  Satan  intruded  upon  it 
beyond  the  water-line,  beyond  the  line  of  right,  and  justice, 
and  liberty.  There  is  the  line,  —  low  tide,  low-water  mark, 
no  Slavery,  no  property  in  man  on  this  side,  the  land  side,  and 
no  authority  whatever  on  the  other  side,  no  step  beyond  the 
bond ;  service  dun  is  the  lowest  water-mark.  But  beyond  this, 
in  boundless  forgery  and  villany,  in  assumption  of  wrong,  in 
extension  of  a  seeming  right  into  infinite  wrong,  your  Slave- 
Power  oligarchy,  minions,  have  filled  in  with  all  the  elements 
of  corruption,  brought  and  dumped  by  paid  scavengers,  the 
water-lots  of  the  Constitution ;  with  the  whole  paraphernalia 


George  B.  Cheever. 


of  Slavery,  docks,  wharves,  jails,  warehouses,  bastiles,  chains, 
bloodhounds,  marshals;  here  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  there 
the  Dred  Scott  Decision,  till  the  made  land  of  despotism  gov- 
erns, changes,  destroys  the  whole  channel,  and  nothing  but 
injustice  prevails. 

Now,  it  is  the  duty  of  your  State,  of  each  sovereign  Free 
State,  to  step  in  and  say  to  these  invaders,  these  squatters  on 
the  premises  of  liberty.  Away  witli  you  and  your  encroach- 
ments !  Take  back  your  structures,  your  made  land  of  Satan, 
within  yonr  own  low-water  line,  or  give  them  up  to  the  pos- 
session and  use  of  freedom  and  justice.  We  hold  you  to  the 
bond.  If  you  can  make  Slavery  out  of  service  due,  if  you 
can  find  or  make  one  iota  of  sanction  for  the  claim  of  prop- 
erty in  man,  show  your  authority  in  God's  name.  It  must 
be  as  plain  as  the  sun  in  these  heavens.  The  thing  claimed 
must  be  written  out  in  full,  Puoperty  in  Man.  But  you 
not  only  have  no  shadow  of  such  claim,  no  intimation  looking 
that  way,  no  mention  nor  descriptij^n  of  the  state  of  Slavery, 
or  of  such  a  possibility  under  heaven  as  that  of  property  in 
man  ;  but  in  fact  there  was  no  civilized  government  or  nation 
under  heaven,  at  the  time  when  your  Constitution  was  framed, 
where  any  statesman  of  any  party,  or  character,  or  grade 
would  have  dared  to  put  into  the  government  instrument  of 
u  civilized  State  the  proposition  or  sanction  of  such  a  crime 
against  God  and  man,  or  the  possibility  of  admitting  it.  And 
any  set  of  men  who  might  have  ventured  such  an  insult 
against  humanity  and  religion,  at  the  same  time  pretending 
to  believe,  and  openly  and  solemnly  announcing,  that  "  all  men 
are  born  free  and  equal,  and  are  endowed  with  inalienable 
rights,  such  as  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  would 
have  been  scorned  by  the  whole  world ;  such  a  set  of  men 
could  not  have  published,  would  not  have  dared  to  publish, 
any  avowal  of  the  possibility  of  any  constitutional  sanction 
of  property  in  man,  in  the  face  of  the  scorn  and  indignation 
that  would  every  where  have  met  them. 

Now  the  pi'ovidence  of  God  has  upset  all  man's  calcula- 


154  George  B.  Cheever. 


tions.  And  a  most  remarkable  thing  it  is,  that  just  when  the 
doctrines  of  the  inviolability  and  sacredness  of  slave  property 
had  reached  their  culminating  point  of  audacity  and  infamy ; 
■when  it  was  becoming  a  political  truism  that  there  could  be 
no  right  of  intervention  against  the  Avrong  of  human  Slavery 
where  it  already  exists,  but  only  the  right  of  endeavoring  to 
prevent  its  extension  ;  when  some  politicians  even,  in  the  only 
party  in  the  country  imagined  to  possess  any  remnant  of  con- 
science or  of  principle,  were  setting  up  a  defence  of  the  rights 
of  the  South  to  undisturbed  possession  of  their  millions  of  slaves, 
as  a  vested  interest  and  right  not  to  be  meddled  witli ;  that 
just  at  this  juncture,  God  should  have  shot  John  Brown  out 
of  the  cannon  of  his  providence  right  into  the  bosom  of  that 
vested  interest ;  shot  him  as  a  bomb  against  it,  scattering  all 
the  theories  of  politicians  to  the  winds,  and  setting  all  men  to 
a  new  discussion,  not  merely  of  the  right  of  the  slaves  them- 
selves to  assert  their  own  freedom,  but  of  the  right  and  duty 
of  all  men  to  help  them  to  it,  in  any  and  every  just  way  that 
God  puts  in  their  power.  There  is  no  stop{>ing  this  discussion, 
when  it  jileases  God  that  it  should  come.  And  if  the  foun- 
tains cjf  the  great  deep  of  iuiman  rights  are  broken  up  here, 
as  in  the  French  revolution,  it  were  as  vain  to  speak  to  the 
whirlwind;  as  expect  to  restrain  or  command  the  blowing 
of  such  a  hurricane.  "What  God  has  done  is  but  a  warning 
of  what  he  will  do.  Tlie  apparition  of  John  Brown  before 
th(;  territit'd  court  and  magicians  of  our  American  Egj'pt,  is 
but  as  tliat  of  Closes,  throwing  down  his  rod  to  become  a 
serpent,  in  comparison  witli  tlie  deadly  plagues  that  are  to 
follow. 

It  looks,  indeed,  as  if  God  had  begtm  liis  work  of  judgment. 
Long  has  he  been  calling  in  mercy.  Yeai-s  of  gi'ace,  mighty 
revivals  of  religion,  trials  of  his  church  and  people,  by  bless- 
ings infinite,  by  bestowing  upon  his  church  and  ministry  such 
might  of  numbers,  and  such  oinriipolenct;  of  spiritual  power, 
if  they  had  but  been  faithful  to  him,  that,  iniited  against  this 
■wickedness,  they  could  have  swei>t  il  from  th(}  land,  almost  as 


George  B,  Cheever. 


easily  as  the  dead  frogs  of  Egypt  could  have  been  shovelled 
into  the  Nile,  when  God  ,had  done  with  that  plague.  We 
have  waited,  and  watched,  and  longed  for  some  fruit  of  the 
revival  of  God's  work,  some  application  of  this  spiritual  power 
in  efforts  for  the  deliverance  of  the  enslaved.  We  see  it  in  some 
directions  only  in  a  more  deadly,  sullen,  ominous  indifference  and 
silence,  along  with  the  revival  of  the  foreign  slave  trade ;  there 
is  not  only  no  purpose,  even  after  such  a  baptism  of  grace  and 
mercy  to  ourselves,  to  exercise  mercy  to  others,  or  labor  for  the 
deliverance  of  the  oppressed,  but  there  is,  in  many  quarters,  a 
deepei",  deadlier,  more  terrible  oppression.  The  churches  and 
the  ministry  refuse  to  speak  out  in  behalf  of  the  enslaved,  but 
still  very  generally  demand  silence,  and  denounce  the  agitation 
of  the  subject.  The  Free  States  pass  new  black  laws  against 
the  colored  race,  and  the  Slave  States  pass  deadlier  slave 
laws,  and  thrust  the  free  colored  population  into  Slavery  with 
their  children  forever.  Be  you  sure  God  is  now  at  length 
coming  out  of  his  place,  to  punish  the  inhabitants  of  the  land 
for  such  iniquity.  And  he  will  call  for  his  ministers  of  ven- 
geance to  devour  them.  But  he  need  not  call,  he  need  not  send 
abroad,  he  need  not  raise  up  the  Assyrians,  they  are  here. 
The  volcanoes  of  wrath  are  here,  the  sleeping  earthquakes  are 
here,  the  ground  trembles  in  every  direction,  the  wells  are 
drying  up,  mute  nature  almost  gives  signs  of  wrath,  that  God 
is  just  ready  to  remove  his  restraints,  and  let  loose  the  ele- 
ments of  death. 

The  government  that  maint  ains  such  wickedness  is  pirat- 
ical. If  one  man  should  do  it,  it  becomes  the  duty  of  govern- 
ment to  put  him  to  death.  If  a  nation  should  do  it,  it  would 
become  the  duty  of  every  man  to  rise  up  against  such  a  nation ; 
if  this  were  done,  the  iniquity  itself  would  be  annihilated. 
By  the  law  of  God  Vii'ginia  is  a  corporate  pirate.  Her  very 
laws  are  outlawed.  She  is  occupied  with  men-stealing,  car- 
ried on,  day  by  day,  incessantly,  and  her  laws  for  the  sanction 
and  protection  of  this  Avickedness  make  it  doubly  vile.  Her 
very  government,  by  such  laws,  converts  her  citizens  into 


George  B.  Cheever. 


traitors  against  God  and  pirates  against  man,  -whenever  and 
•wherever  they  do  not  oppose  such  wickedness,  but  willingly 
obey  it  and  support  it.  They  willingly  walk  after  the  com- 
mandment, choosing  to  obey  the  statutes  of  Ahab  and  Omri, 
rather  than  the  statutes  of  the  Almighty.  Her  laws  are  of 
no  more  force  or  validity  than  the  laws  of  an  association  of 
Thugs,  or  a  brotherhood  of  thieves,  or  a  regiment  of  counter- 
feiters. Commodore  Decatur  might  with  as  "much  propriety 
have  been  tried,  and  sentenced,  and  hanged  for  treason  in 
AlgierSj  as  John  Brown  for  treason  in  Virginia,  for  John 
Brown  owed  no  more  allegiance  to  Virginia  than  Decatur 
owed  to  Algiers.  John  Brown  was  as  properly  engaged  in 
seeking  the  deliverance  of  the  enslaved,  and  the  breaking  up 
the  system  of  Slavery,  as  Commodore  Decatur  in  seeking  to 
break  up  the  piracy  of  the  Algerines. 

This  event  must  open  up  the  subject.  It  must  be  ripped 
up  to  the  bottom.  Either  Slavery  is  absolutely  right  or 
wrong;  either  sanctioned  of  God,  and  just  by  human  law,  or 
forbidden  of  God,  and  impiously  unlawful.  Either  slaves  are 
the  most  sacred  of  all  property,  or  the  most  diabolical  of  all 
robbery.  If  slaveholding  is  impious,  a  government  grounded 
on  it,  protecting  it,  making  laws  in  its  behalf,  is  an  exaspera- 
tion of  villany  infinitely  atrocious,  making  not  only  slaves  out 
of  freemen,  but  villains  out  of  its  own  citizens,  by  its  own  laws. 
There  can  be  no  sanction,  no  justification,  for  such  wicked- 
ness, and  the  attempted  justification  of  it  by  law  is  no  better 
than  if  adultery  or  murder  were  justified  by  law.  The  whole 
world  is  rightfully  at  war  with  such  iniquity,  injustice,  and 
cruelty ;  no  man  can  possibly  commit  treason  in  seeking  to 
overthrow  it,  and  to  release  the  victims  of  such  tyranny.  A 
man  is  bound  to  do  evei-y  thing  in  his  power  for  their  release, 
and  for  the  abolition  of  such  a  system.  If  the  abolition  of 
the  government  were  necessary  for  the  overthrow  of  the  sin, 
if  it  were  certain  that  the  sin  could  be  overthrown  in  no 
other  way,  then  the  sooner  the  government  is  abolished  the 
better.    It  were  infinitely  better  that  three  hundred  thousand 


George  B.  Cheever. 


slaveholders  were  abolished,  struck  out  of  existence,  than  that 
four  million  human  beings,  with  their  posterity  forever,  should 
be  enslaved  under  them,  condemned  to  a  perpetual  system 
which  is  the  perpetual  violation  of  God's  law.  The  Slavery 
sweeps  both  the  victims  of  it,  and  the  tyrants^  to  perdition. 
It  is  death  to  the  slaveholders  ;  so  that  what  is  called  treason, 
is  in  fact  the  highest  mercy  to  them.  Their  forcible  redemp- 
tion from  the  grasp  of  this  sin,  even  by  insurrection,  would 
be  a  blessing,  since  their  souls  might  be  saved ;  but,  continu- 
ing in  this  guilt,  they  must  be  shut  out  from  heaven  ;  so  that 
John  Brown  is  in  reality  their  greatest,  kindest  friend.  Tlie 
angel  that  knocked  Peter's  chains  from  him  in  the  prison  was 
not  more  truly  his  friend,  than  John  Brown,  in  endeavoring 
to  knock  the  fetters  from  the  slave,  is  truly  the  friend  of  the 
slaveholder.  Any  man  striving  to  abolish  Slavery,  is  the  slave- 
holder's greatestfriend.  Any  man  protecting,  and  defending,  and 
endeavoring  to  perpetuate  Slavery,  is  the  slaveholder's  greatest 
enemy.  Any  church  sanctioning  this  crime,  is  just  sealing 
up  its  members  for  perdition ;  just  making  out  of  the  church  a 
great  preserve  of  fatted  game  for  Satan ;  the  profession  of  any 
religion  that  has  sin  for  its  element  being  as  a  self-sealing  can 
of  sweetmeats  for  Satan's  profit  and  use. 

It  is  wonderful  to  behold  the  eyes  of  the  whole  nation 
.turned  upon  one  old  man,  condemned  to  die  upon  the  gallows 
for  an  action  which  multitudes  of  men  stand  in  doubt  whether 
to  pronounce  a  great  crime  or  one  of  the  most  heJ'oic,  disin- 
terested, virtuous,  and  noble  deeds  of  obedience  to  God  and 
benevolence  to  man,  recorded  in  the  century.  There  he  is,  in 
modern  Egypt,  a  greater  riddle,  a  greater  Sphinx  for  men's 
opinions,  than  ancient  Egypt  ever  saw.  There  he  ii^,  as  if 
Oliver  Cromwell  had  risen  from  the  dead,  shaking  the  gory 
head  of  the  tj'rant  in  the  face  of  u  nation  of  oppressors.  lie 
is  God's  handwriting  on  the  wall  of  Slavery  ;  and  the  knees 
of  ihe  whole  South  knock  together  at  the  apparition.  John 
Brown  is  God's  own  protest  ag;nnst  tliis  tyranny,  against  the 
unrighteous  laws  that  sanction  it,  against  the  men  and  States 
14 


158  George  B.  Cheever. 


that  support  it.  God  writes  out  his  warning  on  clear  white 
paper,  takes  the  heart  and  mind  of  a  Christian,  a  man  of 
prayer,  for  its  publication.  John  Brown  is  one  of  those  rare 
instances  of  men  described  by  Milton,  who  act  out  a  convic- 
tion of  duty,  fi'om  which,  from  the  contemplation  of  which, 
common  men,  the  worshippers  of  success,  of  expediency,  and 
of  iniquity  enshrined  in  law,  start  back,  as  in  hori'or  of  a 
great  crime.  Who  that  hears  John  Brown's  words,  that  reads 
his  grand,  solemn,  thrilling  letters  from  his  prison,  that  sees  his 
simple,  majestic.  Christian  deportment  in  the  view  of  death, 
and  notes  his  calm  trust  in  God,  can  doubt  that  God  is  with 
him,  and  that  the  secret  of  his  confidence  is  his  abiding  under 
the  shadow  of  the  Almighty,  and  dwelling  in  the  secret  place 
of  the  Most  High.  In  the  light  of  these  clear,  sun-like,  sacred 
developments  of  character,  and  not  in  the  lurid,  malignant, 
treacherous  glare  of  slave  enactments  and  slaveholding 
cruelty,  iniquity  and  unjust  judgment,  will  John  Brown's 
whole  conduct  be  scrutinized.  It  is  a  mighty  and  meaning 
providence  in  God,  and  when  His  judgments  are  in  the  land, 
the  people  will  learn  righteousness. 

John  Brown  is  the  crystallization  into  action  of  maxims 
which  all  would  act  upon,  if  the  enslaved  and  injured,  in 
whose  behalf  he  has  ventured  unto  death,  were  whites,  were  a 
population  sfolen  from  one  of  your  own  States,  embracing 
children  of  your  own,  wives,  brothers,  sons,  daughters,  fathers, 
mothers,  of  your  own  color  and  blood.  Yoii  would  not  call 
John  Brown's  movement  treason,  you  would  not  call  it  mur- 
der, you  would  not  call  it  a  wicked  act,  if  white  persons,  your 
own  relatives,  had  been  chained  and  claimed  as  property,  tor- 
tured, tasked,  and  condemned  as  a  race  of  chattels ;  you  would 
call  it  justice,  heroism,  piety.  And  if  the  kidnappers  of  such 
victims  had  pretended  an  agreement  in  your  Constitution  of 
service  due,  distorting  that  into  a  defence  and  justification  of 
such  robbery,  you  would  say  that  thei/  were  the  traitors  worthy 
of  death. 

Nor  would  your  judgment  or  your  sentence  be  changed  by 


George  B.  Cheever.  i^g 


a  set  of  Virginia  statutes,  legalizing  this  wickedness,  making 
your  children  the  property  of  their  masters,  and  making  it 
treason  or  felony  in  any  man  to  attempt  to  deliver  them,  or 
run  them  off.  You  would  not  only  contribute  money  and 
arms  to  any  party  who  would  undertake  to  do  this,  but  you 
would  yourselves  take  arms,  and  it  would  be  much  more  the 
duty  of  your  State. to  sanction  and  protect  you  in  such  an 
effort,  than  it  was  when  your  ancestors  took  arms  at  Lexing- 
ton and  Bunker  Hill.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self," and  "  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  to  you, 
do  ye  even  so  to  them."  How  grand  and  majestic  M'as  the 
declaration  of  John  Brown  the  aged,  "  I  am  yet  too  young  to 
be  able  to  understand  that  God  is  any  respecter  of  persons." 

If  you  or  I  possessed  the  power,  by  tossing  a  horn  of  pow- 
der, a  torch  of  Greek  fire,  a  percussion  cap,  an  explosive 
biscuit,  into  the  heart  of  the  South,  to  set  the  whole  slave  pop- 
ulation into  a  sudden  revolt  for  the  assertion  of  their  own 
freedom,  and  the  obliteration  of  those  horrible  laws  that  make 
property  of  man,  concubines  of  w^ves,  adulterers  of  husbands, 
bastards  of  children,  chattels  and  brutes  of  immortal  beings ; 
into  a  revolt  that  would  break  up  and  destroy  this  whole  huge 
system  of  complicated  and  accumulating  villany  and  murder, 
would  it  not,  beyond  question,  be  your  duty,  my  duty  ?  A 
minister  of  Christ  is  said  to  have  declared  that  if  he  could 
emancipate  all  the  slaves  with  one  prayer  he  would  not  dare 
to  offer  it.  Wonderful  piety !  Amazing  sanctity  of  soul  I 
But  some  one  will  say.  Your  producing  such  a  movement 
would  be  attended  with  bloodshed,  and  you  may  not  do  evil 
that  good  may  come.  This  is  a  very  natural  and  inevitable 
thought  in  every  conscientious  mind.  But  let  us  see.  If  a 
den  of  pirates  existed  in  your  country,  or  of  robbers  and  mur- 
derers, whose  custom  and  law  of  their  own  brotherhood  was 
to  convey  away  men,  women,  and  children,  and  make  them 
slaves,  and  to  perpetuate  a  breeding  factory  for  slaves,  of 
them  and  their  posterity,  and  if  you  or  I  had  the  power,  by 
v.  ijatever  violence,  to  break  up  that  den,  you  would,  in  the 


l6o  George  B.  Cheever. 


name  of  God  and  humanity,  demand  me  to  do  it.  If  I  could 
do  it  by  a  prayer,  you  would  say  that  I  was  the  most  impious 
and  abandoned  of  all  hypocrites,  if  I  would  not  do  it,  on  the 
plea  of  fear  of  consequences.  And  if  I  excused  myself  on  the 
plea  that  I  could  not  do  it  but  by  producing  violence  and 
death,  you  would  say  that  by  such  refusal  I  was  myself  guilty 
of  the  continuance  of  a  system  of  infinite  cruelty  and  rob- 
bery, which  I  might  have  brought  to  an  end.  You  would  say 
that  my  killing  those  robbers  and  murderers  would  not  have 
been  the  doing  of  evil  that  good  might  come,  but  a  just,  right- 
eous, and  necessary  act,  and  that  my  refusing  to  do  it  had 
made  me  an  accessory  to  all  that  wickedness.  For  he  that 
knoweth  to  do  good  and  doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin.  This  is 
God's  logic,  not  mine. 

Now,  remember,  that  if  the  color  had  been  white,  and  the 
victims  of  oppression  your  relatives,  neighbors,  or  neighbors' 
descendants,  you  would  have  made  no  question  of  the  virtue, 
righteousness,  and  nobleness  of  John  Brown's,  attempt.  You 
would  not  have  set  the  determination  of  the  quality  of  his  act 
upon  the  probability  of  success.  You  would  have  said  he 
was  so  much  the  greater,  truer,  more  disinterested  hero  for 
going  forth  in  an  undertaking  so  grand,  though,  to  human 
appearance,  hopeless,  yet  trusting  in  God.  Is  it,  indeed,  your 
trust  in  the  consequences,  your  assurance  of  success,  that 
makes  an  action  righteous  ?  That  is  the  morality  taught  by 
some  theologians  who  hdve  sat  in  judgment  on  this  tragedy. 
But  be  you  sure,  the  things  that  are  highly  approved  among 
men  are  abomination  in  the  sight  of  God,  and  they  whom 
men  condemn  are  often  dearei*  to  Him  and  more  like  Him 
than  any  others. 

Between  this  dread  and  solemn  reality  of  John  Brown,  like 
the  form  of  the  destroying  angel  with  the  Sword  of  God 
hanging  over  Jerusalem,  and  the  decision  respecting  our  own 
country,  there  rises  the  great  record,  the  great  fact,  of  eight 
hundred  thousand  slaves  peacefully  set  free,  and  we  hear  the 
thunder  of  the  Hallelujah,  Go  thou,  and  do  likewise !   We  need 


George  B.  Cheever. 


161 


these  extreme  lessons,  and  God's  providence  that  supplies  them 
calls  us  to  apply  them.  God  shows  us  tiie  coming  evil,  makes 
us  feel  that  it  is  coming,  shov/s  us  how  to  avoid  it.  We  may 
avoid  it,  but  there  is  only  one  way,  —  "by  doing  justly,  loving 
mercy,  and  walking  humbly  with  our  God."  In  other  words, 
the  only  way  is  by  immediate  repentance,  and  renunciation  of 
the  sin.  A  fixed,  definite  purpose  of  obedience  to  God,  by 
abolition  of  the  wickedness,  is  the  first  thing.  The  object 
before  us,  the  work  to  be  accomplished,  is  that  of  five  millions 
of  slaves  to  be  set  free,  for  Mr.  Stephens  himself  has  so  com- 
puted them.  The  command  and  authority  lor  this  are  from 
God,  and  the  means  are  all  provided  by  him.  They  are,  in 
the  first  place,  his  own  "Word,  his  law,  his  gospel,  desci'ibing 
the  sin  of  slaveholding,  forbidding  it,  pronouncing  the  penalty, 
which  is  death,  making  it  a  crime  of  equivalent  guilt  with  tliat 
of  murder.  It  is  indeed  the  murder  of  the  personality  of 
man,  and  in  one  respect  much  worse  than  the  work  of  tlie 
ordinary  assassin,  since  it  is  a  germinating,  reproductive  crime, 
organized  and  set  in  a  system,  with  a  law  of  pei'petuity  and 
increase,  creating  a  self-acting  manufactory  of  the  assassina- 
tion from  generation  to  generation ;  the  original  enslaving  of 
the  parents  (no  matter  though  they  were  kidnapped  in  Africa) 
inexorably  dooming  the  children  of  the  parents,  and  their 
children  after  them,  to  a  continued  legalized  assassination 
before  the  Moloch  of  the  system.  No  wonder,  with  this  in 
view,  that  God  condemned  the  sin  of  slaveholding  to  the  pun- 
ishment of  death.  God's  Word  forbids  any  man  to  continue 
in  this  crime  one  single  moment.  God's  Word  requires  the 
instant  renunciation  of  all  this  guilt. 

By  no  art  or  stratagem  of  sophistry  can  the  endurance  of 
it  be  made  justly  permissible  for  a  single  year,  or  in  any 
State  or  community.  The  idea  of  a  Christian  man  being 
capable  of  calmly  considering  such  wickedness  as  a  vested 
right,  or  a  system  to  endure  for  ages,  seems  incredible.  The 
idea  of  ameliorating  such  a  system,  the  iniquity  meanwhile 
permitted  to  continue  and  increase,  the  moral  assassination 
14* 


l62 


George  B.  Cheever. 


all  the  wliile  going  on,  involved  in  the  claim  of  property  in 
man,  is  criminally  wild.  The  claim  itself  must  instantly  be 
relinquished,  or  the  man  maintaining  it  is  a  man-stealer.  The 
power  of  enforcing  the  claim  ought,  without  delay,  to  be  taken 
away  by  the  government,  or  the  government  and  the  people, 
sanctioning  and  perpetuating  such  a  wickedness,  are  piratical. 
The  plan  of  treating  the  abuses  and  evils  growing  out  of  such 
a  system,  and  applying  the  instructions  of  the  Gospel  affection- 
ately to  slaveholders,  to  persuade  them  to  Christianize  it,  they 
all  the  while  holding  the  infinite  fountain-wickedness  of  the 
claim  of  property  in  man  —  holding  slaves  as  property,  main- 
taining, and  permitted  to  maintain  such  jiroperty  as  their 
vested  right  —  the  idea  of  the  Gospel  sanctioning  for  one 
moment  such  a  right,  is  not  merely  an  absurdity,  but  an  im- 
piety. The  claim  of  property  in  man  cannot  be  divested  of 
its  wickedness,  or  discharged  of  the  essential  element  of  man- 
stealing  involved  in  it,  though  all  the  churclies  on  earth  should 
receive  it  into  their  communion,  and  all  the  preachers  on  earth 
should  nurse  it  with  angelic  charity  and  love. 

We  come  next  to  the  legal  and  constitutional  means  which 
God  has  put  in  our  power  for  the  abolition  of  this  wickedness. 
If  there  is  a  spirit  in  the'  people  to  obey  God  and  do  justly, 
there  will  be  found  nothing  in  the  Constitution  forbidding  such 
obedience,  but  every  thing  convenient  for  it,  and  all  the  means 
of  it,  under  the  interpretation  of  justice  and  equity,  —  the 
only  interpreters  of  our  Constitution  that  ought  to  be  endured 
to  sit  in  judgment  upon  it.  By  all  that  is  just  and  righteous, 
by  the  holy  attributes  of  God,  by  the  sacredness  of  conscience, 
by  the  nature  of  law,  which  is  of  no  authority  when  against 
God  and  nature  ;  by  the  majesty  of  English  law,  which  is  the 
parent  of  American  freedom ;  by  the  justice  of  common  law, 
which,  both  in  England  and  America,  is  the  safety  of  the 
citizen  and  subject ;  by  the  truth  and  solemnity  of  civilized 
and  Christian  jurisprudence  the  world  over,  affirming  that 
human  law  against  the  law  of  nature  and  of  God  can  have  no 
validity  whatever,  but  that  every  man  is  bound  to  oppose  and 


George  B.  Cheever.  163 


destroy  it ;  by  the  example  of  the  greatest,  wisest,  profound- 
est.  most  Christian  judge  in  the  world,  declaring  that  iniquity 
in  law  had  no  standing-place  in  duty,  and  that  every  techni- 
cality, as  well  as  the  whole  spirit  of  law,  ought  to  be  pressed 
to  the  extreme  in  behalf  of  justice  and  righteousness,  and  the 
interpretation  of  righteousness  ought  to  be  pressed  in  behalf 
of  freedom  and  justice  to  every  extreme  against  any  letter 
of  wrong;  by  the  authority  of  obedience  to  God  and  mercy 
towards  man,  we  call  upon  our  rulers,  our  magistrates,  our  men 
in  authority,  our  lawyers  and  legislators,  to  labor  for  that 
return  of  judgment  to  righteousness,  which  is  the  only  con- 
dition on  which  we  can  be  brought  back  to  God,  and  can 
receive  his  forgiveness  and  his  blessing;  the  only  condition 
on  which  a  Christian  man  can  stay  with  safety  in  the  country. 
And  woe  to  that  land  whose  laws  are  such  that  they  compel 
the  good,  the  high-principled,  the  men  of  stern  conscience 
towards  God,  to  abandon  it,  to  seek  refuge  in  flight,  ratlier 
than  set  the  example  either  of  violent  resistance  or  of  boot- 
lessly  laying  down  their  necks  for  the  worst  form  of  despotism 
to  ride  over. 

The  perversions  of  the  Word  of  God  and  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  our  country  are  the  great  stratagems  by  which  the 
defenders  of  Slavery  have  enthroned  it  as  a  legitimate  power, 
and  are  laboring  to  establish  it,  in  the  government  and  the 
churcli,  in  politics  and  theology.  These  charters  of  our  Free- 
dom, the  Constitution  and  the  Bible,  must  be  rescued  from 
such  perversion.  We  are  bound  to  resist  Slavery  every 
where,  —  first,  with  the  truth  of  God,  which  is  irresistible, 
overruling,  overriding,  and  sweeping  down  every  thing  before 
it ;  and,  second,  with  all  the  constitutional,  legal,  and  moral 
appliances  which  God  has  put  in  our  power.  We  are  bound 
to  make  the  most  of  every  weapon  and  every  advantage,  and 
to  stretch  taut  every  principle  and  truth  to  the  uttermost  — 
in  fnvorem  libertatis.  We  are  bound  to  interpret  the  Con- 
stitution in  behalf  of  Freedom  and  against  Slavery.  This  I 
believe  has  always  been  the  conviction,  freely  and  firmly 


164 


George  B.  Cheever. 


avowed,  of  our  noble  friend  and  brother  in  belialf  of  human 
rights  in  this  city,  Mr.  Greeley,  whose  powerful  journal  has 
again  and  again  smitten  the  oppressor  and  the  slaveholding 
interests  to  the  heart,  and  will  continue  to  do  so.  He  once 
said,  and  admirably  said,  that  "  no  one  can  doubt  that  if  ours 
Avere  the  Constitution  of  some  forgotten  republic  of  antiquity 
just  recovered  and  submitted  to  learned  publicists,  to  deter- 
mine its  true  character,  they  must  unanimously  pronounce  it 
incompatible  with  the  existence  of  Slavery.  Let  the  Ameri- 
can people  come  to  hate  Slavery  as  they  ought,  and  we  shall 
need  no  Abolition  acts,  for  the  Judiciary  will  deal  with  it  as 
Portia  did  with  Shylock's  pound  of  flesh.  There  must  always 
be  law  enough  in  a  republic  to  sweep  away  Slavery  whenever 
the  judges  can  afford  to  discern  and  apply  it." 

It  is  a  fearful  and  a  shameful  thing  to  be  mooting  the  sup- 
position that  there  is  any  thing  wrong  in  the  Constitution ;  and 
that  supposing  there  were,  we  should  be  forbidden  from  inter- 
fering with  that  wrong.  The  germs  of  atheism  and  despotism 
lie  in  this  habit ;  the  worst  men  under  the  worst  government 
on  earth  could  desire  nothing  better  for  their  purposes  than 
such  logic.  The  principle  of  being  bound  by  any  Constitution 
to  a  moral  wrong,  Gcd's  law  against  it,  notwithstanding,  is 
atheism.  Carry  that  principle  into  action,  let  the  people  suf- 
fer their  rulers  to  act  upon  it,  to  interpret  the  Constitution  by 
it,  and  it  creates  a  tyranny,  soon  to  be  perfected  into  the  com- 
pletest,  most  remorseless,  most  hopeless  despotism  that  the 
world  ever  saw. 

It  is  now,  therefore,  the  duty  of  our  moralists  and  statesmen 
to  take  the  Constitution,  and  apply  and  drive  every  article 
and  principle  of  Freedom  in  it  to  the  utmost  extreme,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  its  declared  purpose,  the  securing  to  every 
human  being  under  its  authority  the  privileges  of  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  for  the  protection  of  which  it 
was  framed.  No  Constitution,  wiih  such  an  object,  can  possi- 
bly, in  any  of  its  articles,  deprive  any  class  of  human  beings 
under  it  of  their  rights.    None  can  be  rightfully  under  its 


George  B.  Cheever. 


authority,  but  for  the  protection  of  these  rights.  If  such  a 
horrible  enormity  could  be  supposed,  then  the  class  so  sacri- 
ficed, so  deprived  of  their  rights,  so  brought  under  authority 
of  the  Constitution  only  to  be  assassinated  by  it,  must  have 
been  named,  must  have  been  described  with  the  greatest 
explicitness  and  clearness^  and  the  exact  sacrifice  unmistaka- 
bly marked  and  distinguished,  for  which  they  are  doomed.  If 
there  could  be  supposed  such  a  diabolic  bond,  it  must  be  drawn 
with  such  exactness,  such  inexorable  definiteness  in  the  very 
last  letter,  as  to  leave  no  room  for  perversion  or  doubt.  If 
the  destined  sacrifice  were  capable  of  a  name,  by  which  also 
the  victims  themselves  were  designated,  if  it  had  a  title,  a 
word,  an  epithet  in  morals  and  in  law,  by  which  it  was  cus- 
tomarily, nay,  always,  named  and  known,  then  it  must  be  so 
named  and  described  in  the  Constitution.  If  that  sacrifice, 
and  the  term  by  which  it  is  known,  were  Slavery,  then  in- 
evitably it  must  be  mentioned ;  and  the  Constitution  would 
then  be,  as  to  that  whole  class  of  human  beings  consigned  by 
it  to  a  living  tomb,  a  diabolic  indictment  for  a  definite,  unmis- 
takable state  of  cruelty  and  misery. 

In  the  indictment  by  which  such  consignment  to  a  moral 
assassination  is  effected,  certainly  the  actual  thing  intended 
must  be  named  ;  since  we  all  know  that  for  an  indictment  to 
hold  against  a  criminal,  without  the  exact  crime  being  named, 
would  be  such  a  monstrosity  as  never  has  been  committed  or 
suffered  in  any  civilized  nation  under  heaven,  not  even  in  Vir- 
ginia. But  much  more  where  it  is  an  indictment  consigning 
an  innocent  person  to  a  condition  which  is  deemed  the  most 
dreadful  penalty  executed  even  on  a  criminal ;  to  have  an 
innocent  person  consigned  to  such  a  condition  by  virtue  of  an 
indictment  in  which  the  condition  itself  was  not  named  —  this 
would  be  such  a  complication  and  exasperation  of  wickedness, 
such  combined  treachery,  cruelty,  and  chaos  of  morals,  that 
the  mind  is  horrified  at  the  supposition  of  the  possibility. 
The  bare  imagination  of  having  such  wickedness  accom- 
plished by  a  circumlocution  of  honest  language  so  hypocritical 


i66  George  B.  Cheever. 


and  lying  as  that  of  "  service  due,"  the  bare  imagination  of 
Christian  and  civilized  men  so  divesting  themselves  of  all 
remnant  of  truth  and  justice,  as  to  take  God's  gift  of  honest 
speech,  and  work  out  of  it  such  a  contrivance  of  villany,  such 
an  infinite  fraud,  of  a  nature  so  terrible,  so  assassinating,  so 
comprehensive,  —  a  cruelty,  to  attach  to  millions  yet  unborn 
so  dreadful  a  penalty  as  that  of  being  born  slaves  and  con- 
signed to  Slavery,  by  an  indictment  of  malignity  that  mentions 
only  service  due,  —  this  is  so  horrible  an  outrage  against  God 
and  man,  an  insult  to  the  Almighty  so  defiant,  and  to  a  whole 
race  an  injustice  at  once  so  exquisite  and  atrocious,  that  it  is  a 
wonder  that  the  bolt  of  heaven  does  not  come  down  shattering 
and  consuming  the  iniquity  and  its  supporters  in  o.ie  common 
vengeance. 

Out  of  such  a  fountain,  with  such  hidden  iniquity  playing 
into  it,  if  the  people  sanction  and  sustain  the  fraud,  there  can 
flow  nothing  but  increasing  guilt,  and  by  the  diffusion  of  such 
poison,  as  if  arsenic  were  thrown  into  the  Croton  reservoir, 
and  the  deadly  impregnation  ran  to  every  dwelHng,  the  heart 
and  conscience  of  the  people  are  constantly  more  hardened 
and  corrupted,  more  accustomed  to  the  wickedness,  and  insen- 
sible beneath  it.  At  length  the  old  enslaving  enactments  are 
charged  with  elements  of  double  atrocity,  and  armed  wiih 
a  pungent,  penetrating,  and  suddenly  diffusive  stimulant  of 
cruelty  and  wrong,  that  seems  to  put  those  who  breathe  it,  or 
taste  it,  or  endure  it,  entirely  beside  themselves  in  a  madness 
of  alacrity  for  the  dirtiest  work  of  tiie  slave  power.  It  is  like 
chloroform  put  to  the  nostrils,  till  the  patient  becomes  so 
insensible  that  his  own  limbs  may  be  sawed  off,  and  he  will 
feel  no  pain,  nor  be  aware  of  the  injury. 

Thus  is  the  conscience  of  t!ie  country  being  drugged,  and 
the  dire  experiments  of  Slavery  are  being  executed  to  tlie  full, 
without  resistance,  without  noise.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill, 
bad  as  it  is,  is  made  worse  in  its  execution,  being  applied  not 
only  as  a  contrivance  for  kidnapping  men  with  impunit;.',  but 
its  prongs  thrust  into  babes,  born  since  the  slave  motlier'a 


George  B.  Cheever.  167 


escape,  and,  under  cover  of  service  dfle,  delivered  over  by 
brutal  judges  into  a  Slavery  of  which  they  never  were  the 
subjects,  and  from  which,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  they  could 
not  have  been  fugitives,  and  over  whom  neither  the  letter  nor 
spirit  of  the  law,  diabolical  as  that  is,  could  give  the  master 
the  least  claim.  Atrocities  are  being  committed  in  the  name 
of  law,  and  then  settled  as  precedents,  and  they  rush  upon  us 
with  such  crowd  and  swiftness,  that  the  public  sense  has  hardly 
time  or  attentiveness  to  be  arrested  by  them  :  atrocities  that 
formerly  would  have  convulsed  the  country  witJi  horror.  The 
records  of  judicial  wickedness,  from  Jeffries  downward,  can 
hardly  show  so  vile  an  act  of  this  nature,  deliberately  com- 
mitted, as  that  perpetrated  by  a  judge  of  Maryland  upon  a 
slave  mother,  who  had  been  manumitted,  and  her  child,  born 
two  years  after  that  manumission,  in  Washington  City,  both 
of  them  sentenced  into  Slavery  by  the  judge,  on  being  claimed 
by  the  son  of  the  master  who  had  given  the  slave  her  free- 
dom, and  asserted  to  be  his  property  as  fugitives.  The  judge 
not  only  excluded  all  evidence  offered  on  behalf  of  the  ne- 
groes, but  even  refused  permission  to  have  it  shown  in  court 
that  there  could  be  no  shadow  of  a  claim  upon  the  child,  for 
that  the  child  was  not  a  runaway,  had  never  been  in  pos- 
session of  any  master,  could  not  owe  service  to  any  one,  and 
was  positively  free.  The  evidence  was  offered,  and  deliber- 
ately refused,  and  both  the  mother  and  her  daughter  were,  by 
order  of  the  judge,  delivered  over  to  the  kidnapper.  De- 
scribing judges  of  this  stamp  in  the  Kingdom  of  Israel,  God 
says  of  the  execrable  wretches :  Her  judges  are  evexing 
WOLVES.  A  hyena,  with  a  child  upon  his  tusks,  should  be 
set  in  the  Capitol  in  bronze,  as  the  image  of  such  American 
justice ;  and  the  statue  of  an  evening  wolf  would  be  a  fitting 
monument  for  a  judge  capable  of  a  decision  so  superfluously 
cruel  and  barbarous. 

Now  we  demand  protection  for  ourselves  from  such  atro- 
cious perversions  even  of  cruel  law,  and  from  sucli  distortions 
of  the  Constitution  into  a  child-stealing  instrument.  We 


i68 


George  B,  Cheever. 


demand  enactments  which  we  can  legally  resist  such  wick- 
edness. We  rightfully  demand  that  as  Christian  citizens  we 
shall  not  be  compelled  to  perform  the  common  duties  of  human- 
ity, enjoined  by  God  upon  us,  at  the  risk  of  pains  and  penal- 
ties, as  if  we  were  the  vilest  criminals.  We  demand  of  our 
Senators  and  Representatives  that  our  Constitution  be  brought 
back  to  its  first  principles,  that  judgment  be  returned  to  right- 
eousness, and  laws  enacted  under  the  shield  of  which  virtuous 
men  shall  be  secure  from  being  made  the  prey  of  a  tyrannical 
slave  party  for  their  declaration  of  the  truth,  their  compassion 
towards  the  oppressed,  their  interference  against  wrong,  their 
defence  of  equity.  How  dreadful  is  the  condition  of  the 
country  where  the  worst  citizens  are  thei  most  secure,  where 
the  noblest  impulses  of  our  nature  are  branded  as  crime,  and 
the  most  depraved  are  rewarded  and  pensioned  ;  where  good 
men  have  to  perform  good  deeds  by  stealth,  or  expose  them- 
selves to  legal  prosecution.  We  rightfully  demand  from  our 
own  sovereignties  the  means  of  legal  and  peaceful  resistance 
against  unrighteous  and  unconstitutional  laws.  We  rightfully 
demand  from  our  own 'Government  that  it  respect  tlie  great 
object  for  which  alone  God  has  declared  that  He  himself 
sanctions  government,  and  gives  it  any  authority,  the  protec- 
tion of  men  in  the  freedom  of  obedience  to  God.  If  the  Gov- 
ernment will  not  do  this,  God  Himself,  will  break  up  the 
Gbyej*nment,  for  He  cannot  deny  Himself  and  He  has  declared 
that  the  throne  of  iniquity  that  frameth  mischief  by  law  shall 
have  no  fellowship  with  Him,  and  that  the  nation  and  kingdom 
that  will  not  serve  Him  shall  perish. 

The  most  precious  opportunity,  on  the  vastest  scale,  with 
impregnable  securities,  if  we  would  but  use  them,  has  been 
given  of  God  in  this  country,  to  try  the  experiment  of  liberty 
by  conscience,  enlightened  and  directed  by  Divine  truth.  This 
is  the  only  security  of  Freedom;  no  written  Constitution  being 
worth  any  thing  as  a  safeguard,  except'  there  be  the  spirit  of 
Freedom  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  from  conscieiuie  towiird.^ 
God.    Therefore,  the  law  of  conscience  in  the  Word  of  God 


George  B.  Cheevcr.  169 

was  to  be  regarded  as  supreme ;  God's  will,  God's  truth  and 
righteousness,  wfts  to  be  the  regent,  was  to  act  in  politics  as  in 
a  domain  of  integrity  and  honor.  But  conscience,  after  a  con- 
siderable power  has  been  gained  by  this  profession,  has  been 
cashiered,  and  turned  out  of  its  commanding  position.  The 
Constitution  is  perverted,  and  wicked  precedents  are  set  up  as 
the  rule,  instead  of  righteous  iaw,  righteously  interpreted. 

This,  unquestionably,  is  one  of  our  greatest  dangers.  In 
this  direction  our  Government  is,  with  fearful  rapidity,  con- 
solidating into  a  despotism,  passing  into  a  tyranny  over  us, 
and  beyond  our  reach.  Precedents  set  by  unprincipled  judges 
are  allowed  to  stand  for  law,  are  accepted  as  law,  are  appealed 
to  as  law,  are  enforced  as  law.  Consequently,  any  tyrannical 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution  by  the  Government  has  only 
to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  such  judges,  only  to  be  passed  over 
to  them,  and  their  prearranged  and  purchased  dictum,  at  com- 
mand of  the  Government,  is  thenceforth  published  and  rever- 
berated, as  with  all  the  authority  of  a  ^legislative  act.  A 
•  principle  that  could  by  no  possibility  have  been  got  through 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  form  of  a  law,  is 
thus  surreptitiously  enthroned  as  law,  at  the  will  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. No  despotism  under  heaven  ever  possessed  such 
power  as  that  must  wield,  which  is  thus  constituted  under  the 
popular  delusion  of  a  representative  freedom.  Nothing  can 
withstand  it.  The  people,  in  submitting  to  it^  offer  their  wrists 
voluntary  to  the  Government  to  be  manacled,  their  bodies  and 
souls  to  be  fettered.  Thus  it  is,  that  in  admitting  the  Dred 
Scott  Decision  as  a  just  and  legal  interpretation  and  execution 
of  tlie  Constitution,  along  with  the  Fugitive  Slave  !Bill,  the 
people  go  far  towards  signing  their  own  death-warrant — they 
render  their  own  slavery  inevitable. 

The  States  that  are  Free  must  stand  against  this  iniquity 
upon  their  sov  ereignty,  and  assert  their  rights,  and  defend 
them  to  the  extreme.  The  Free  States  must  protect  theip 
own  citizens  in  the  privilege  of  free  speech  and  action  against 
Slavery.  The  Free  States  must  protect  their  Qwn  citizetts 


170 


George  B.  Cheever. 


from  the  pains  and  penalties  sought  to  be  imposed  upon  them, 
by  the  Federal  Government  and  by  the  Slave  States,  because 
they  refuse  to  obey  tTie  wicked  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  or  givis 
that  Christian  aid  aiid  comfort  which  God  commands  every 
man  to  give  to  the  poor  fugitive  seeking  to  escape  from  Sla\  3ry. 
To  this  end  a  strict  and  energetic  Personal  Liberty  Bill  must 
be  demanded  by  the  people,  and  passed  by  the  Legislature; 
and  if  this  be  not  done,  the  people  will  have  been  provied  trai- 
tors to  themselves,  the  Legislature  traitors  to  the  people,  and 
altogether  traitors  to  Freedom,  humanity,  piety,  and  God. 
The  enforcement  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  ought  to  be  ren- 
dered impossible  by  the  Legislature  on  the  ground  both  of  its 
unconstitutionality,  and  its  inhumanity  and  impiety ;  ought  to 
be  made  impossible  through  stringent  opposing  State  law. 

Our  grand  remedy,  in  a  crisis  of  such  danger,  is  pointed  out 
in  our  text ;  it  is  the  return  of  judgment  to  righteousness,  and 
all  the  upright  in  heart  following  it.  It  is  a  conviction  of  the 
right,  and  a  rallying  upon  it,  with  an  eye  single  to  conscience 
and  to  God.  And  you  can  have  no  eye  single  to  God  and 
the  right,  except  you  make  His  Word  and  will  supreme.  You 
C£Ui  have  no  reliance  in  this  conflict  but  upon  fixed  principles, 
by  the  one  infallible  standard  of  God's  Word,  and  upon  meii 
under  the  power  of  such  principles,  moored  by  Ihem,  held  fast 
at  them,  grappled  to  God  and  His  throne,  and  neither  to  be 
terrified,  torn,  nor  driven  from  that  hold.  You  build  upon  the 
eatid,  if  in  selecting  men  or  means  you  build  upon  expediency, 
availability,  adaptation  to  success,  any  thing  but  truth  and 
righteousness.  You  must  go  down  deep,  dig  deep,  build  upon 
the  rock,  or  else,  when  the  rain  descends  and  the  floods  come, 
your  house  will  be  swept  away  simply  by  the  shifting  of  the 
quicksands  under  it.  What  the  storm  could  not  do,  the  shift- 
ing of  your  foundation  will  do.  There  is  no  ground  of  reliance 
upon  political  parties,  or  the  inanagement  of  them.  There  is 
no  ground  where  you  are  secure  from  change,  out  of  reach  of 
the  ocean,  except  the  ground  of  God's  truth  and  righteousness. 
Suppose  that  a  man  shQuld  pitch  }ii9  tent  on  the  shores  of  the 


George  B.  Cheever.  171 

Bay  of  Fundy,  where  the  tide  rises  forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  feet, 
and  comes  in  with  a  rush  like  an  army  of  war  horses.  If  he 
does  not  take  ground  higher  than  the  highest  spring  tide  ever 
known  to  have  risen,  his  whole  establishment  may  be  swept 
away  in  one  night,  and  that  too  by  the  very  principles  against 
which  he  might  have  guarded  at  the  outset.  He  must  get 
above  the  sweep  of  the  laws  of  ocean  with  its  tides,  or  his  reli- 
ance on  the  law  will  do  him  no  good,  nay,  will  only  the  more 
certainly  prove  his  ruin.  Just  so,  there  is  no  reliance  to  be 
placed  on  any  temporary  expediency  or  compromise  in  regard  - 
to  a  great  advancing  sin.  If  you  make  treaties  by  positions, 
you  are  lost  piecemeal.  Every  advancing  victory  of  the  Slave- 
power  is  an  advance  on  principle,  and  is  secured  by  law. 
Every  act  of  yielding  on  our  part,  every  compromise  for  peace 
and  union,  every  acquiescence,  every  silent  submission,  is  not 
only  a  relinquishment  and  loss  of  territory,  position,  and 
power,  but  is  a  sinful  betrayal  of  principle. 

What  is  thus  sacrificed  can  never  be  regained  but  by  a 
revolution,  which  becomes  continually  more  hopeless,  more 
impossible.  As  the  enemy  advance,  you  retreat,  afraid  to  ^ 
hazard  a  pitched  battle,  and  every  day  driven  to  less  advan- 
tageous ground  for  such  a  battle,  which,  nevertheless,  is  inevi- 
table in  the  end,  or  you  lose  your  whole  liberties.  Meantime 
you  are  losing,  little  by  little,  both  your  forces  and  your  prin- 
ciples ;  every  skirmish  they  drop  off,  or  go  over  to  the  enemy, 
if  not  openly,  yet  by  relinquishing  the  things  at  first  demanded, 
till  at  length  there  is  left  neither  any  thing  worth  fighting  for, 
nor  any  heart  to  fight.  Daniel  Websier  used  to  say  that 
CJonscience  was  a  power,  in  New  England  at  least,  and  that 
when  that  was  offended,  nothing  could  stand  against  it  It  was 
mere  rhetoric.  You  find  that,  in  regard  to  the  outiages  of  the 
Slave-power,  and  the  iniquities  of  Slavery,  Conscience  is  made 
.  of  such  solid  depths  of  India  rubber,  that  nothing  can  oifend  it. 
It  is  as  a  shield  of  tough  pitch,  in  which  all  weapons  stick  and 
hang,  without  so  much  as  a  scratch  upon  the  vitals.  It  is  the 
picture  of  a  rhinoceros  standing  in  the  writer  and  out  of  the 


172  George  B.  Cheever. 

water,  perfectly  insensible,  not  only  to  the  stings  of  musquitoes, 
but  even  the  darts  of  men.  It  is  as  a  Serbonian  bog,  that 
will  swallow  the  whole  iniquity  of  Slavery,  and  leave  no  trace; 
it  is  as  a  sea  of  asphaltic  slime,  that  will  flow  sluggishly  onwai  d, 
and  not  even  a  whirlwind  can  lash  it  into  waves  that  will 
break,  but  the  most  terrible  convulsions  will  leave  it  as  smooth 
and  unruffled  as  the  pavement  that  you  tread  upon.  A  seared 
and  sluggish  conscience  always  wakes  too  late.  Conscience 
was  appointed,  not  for  remorse  only,  but  to  be  a  guardian,  a 
guiding  spirit  in  the  right,  and  a  saving  and  preserving  power 
from  evil.  If  remorse  is  the  only  operation  in  which  it  is. 
permitted  to  be  eflfectual,  then  indeed  is  it  powerful  only  for 
perdition  and  despair. 

We  must  strike  for  the  right,  or  God  himself  will  strike,  by 
the  very  reaction  and  retribution  of  the  wrong.  It  is  God's 
awful  providential  rule,  that  if  men,  Cbristiah  men,  instructed 
of  God,  with  His  Word,  the  agent  of  Omnipotence  in  their 
hands,  will  not,  out  of  regard  to  him  and  to  the  demands  of 
benevolence  and  justice,  right  a  great  wrong,  then  the  wrong 
will  sooner  or  later  right  itself  in  earthquake  and  desolation, 
in  conflict  and  war,  in  battle  and  blood.  We  must  strike  for 
the  right,  or  speedily  the  five  millions  of  slaves  will  become 
ten,  and  God  will  let  loose  the  avalanche ;  and  when  he  does 
this,  it  will  no  more  be  in  the  power  of  an  appalled  and  trem- 
bling church,  by  an  untimely  repentance,  wrung  out  of  selfish- 
ness and  terror,  to  stay  or  prevent  the  ruin,  than  it  would  be 
possible  for  a  regiment  of  conservative  saints  to  hold  back  an 
Alpine  cataract,  or  a  ridge  on  the  icy  forehead  of  the  Jungfrau 
mountain,  already  loosened  by  the  tempest  and  thundering 
into  the  valley  below.  We  must  strike  for  others,  whose 
appeal  is  to  us  for  mercy,  or  God  himself  will  strike  us.  "  If 
ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  that  which  is  another  man's  who 
shall  give  you  that  which  is  your  own  ?  "  We  must  strike  for 
righteousness  and  justice,  while  there  is  any  acknowledgment 
of  either  left  in  the  land ;  for  it  is  fast  becoming  perfectly  cor- 
rupted. He  that  eateth  of  their  eggs  dietb,  and  that  which  is 
mished  breaketh  out  into  a  viper. 


George  B.  Cheever. 


173 


Finally,  we  must  choose  righteousness,  obey  God,  do  justly, 
love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  Him.  Politicians  may 
argue  from  political  expediency,  but  God  will  have  justice, 
and  commands  our  nation  every  where  to  repent.  His  com- 
mand comes  now,  as  it  did  of  old.  Let  my  people  go,  that 
they  may  serve  me ;  let  them  go,  with  their  flocks,  their  herds, 
and  their  little  ones.  God  instructed  Moses  to  bring  no  argu- 
ment to  bear  upon  Pharaoh  but  just  God's  command.  He  did 
not  permit  Moses  to  consult  with  Jannes  and  Jambres,  and  get 
them  to  persuade  Pharaoh  that  free  labor  was  more  profitable 
than  slave.  He  did  not  permit  Moses  to  wait  a  generation  or 
80,  till  Pharaoh  and  the  Egyptians  should  be  convinced  that 
obedience  to  God's  command  was  for  their  own  interest,  and 
so  by  selfishness  itself,  and  not  by  any  regard  to  God,  or  justice, 
or  humanity,  Slavery  should  die  out.  €rod  will  not  be  thus 
mocked,  and  if  we,  as  ministers  of  his  word,  shrink  back  from 
applying  it,  and  say.  Leave  it  to  the  politicians  and  the  laws 
of  nature  to  work  away  this  evil,  but  let  us  not  disturb  the 
churches  and  our  congregations  with  God's  denunciations  of  it 
36  a  sin ;  this  is  neither  more  nor  less,  as  I  have  said  on 
another  occasion,  than  to  make^  ourselves  in  the  ministry  one 
great,  concentrated,  consolidated  Jonah ;  and  God  somewhere 
will  have  in  preparation  the  whale  to  swallow  us. 

It  would  have  been  every  way  as  proper  for  Jonah,  when 
God  commanded  him  to  preach  repentance  in  Nineveh,  to  say, 
Let  Nineveh  alone,  and  by  and  by  the  people  will  find  out  by 
their  own  experience  that  holiness  is  more  profitable  than  sin, 
bat  to  fly  in  the  face  of  their  passions  and  prejudices  with  the 
Word  of  God  commanding  them  at  once  to  repent,  and  humble 
themselves  before  him,  would  be  madness,  would  only  stir  up 
strife,  and  expose  me  as  a  prophet  to  persecution  and  death ; 
it  would  have  been  just  as  proper  and  right  for  him  to  have 
reasoned  thus,  as  it  would  be  now  for  us  to  adopt  the  same 
policy  of  silence  as  to  our  tjountry's  great  reigning  iniquity. 
We  cannot  thus  take  passage  to  TarshisB,  and  go  into  our 
berths,  and  sleep  with  safety.  The  whole  country,  and  the 
15* 


174  George  B.  Cheever. 


whole  world,  startled  by  God's  providence  with  John  Brown, 
are  looking  at  us,  and  waiting  for  us,  and  almost  calling  upon 
us,  as  the  shipmen  upon  Jonah,  What  meanest  thou,  O  sleeper! 
Awake,  and  call  upon  thy  God !  Depend  upon  it,  this  matter 
is  to  be  settled  by  the  Word  of  God,  or.  not  at  all ;  by  the 
Word  of  God,  or  it  will  be  our  destruction.  God  will  have 
obedience  and  not  sacrifice.  When  he  commands  our  nation 
to  do  justly,  he  will  not  let  us  wait  and  do  unjustly,  till,  having 
worn  out  our  lands,  and  brought  ourselves  upon  the  brink  of 
ruin  by  stealing  men  and  endeavoring  to  establish  ourselves  in  • 
unrighteousness,  we  at  length  conclude,  forsooth,  that  honesty 
is  the  best  policy,  and  therefore  out  of  pure  selfishness  we  will 
take  the  way  that  God  comma  aded. 

To  all  eternity,  if  God  dealt  thus  with  his  creatures,  leaving 
thein  to  obey  him  only  when  it  suited  their  own  convenience, 
and  his  ministers  to  apply  His  Word  only  when  it  was  popular, 
and  self-interest  on  its  side,  he  never  could  have  a  holy  people, 
or  a  pure  nation ;  and  heaven  itself,  if  peopled  with  souls  and 
nations,  thus  cajoled  into  the  practice  of  piety  by  selfishness, 
would  only  need  another  Lucifer  to  head  another  rebellion, 
and  make  another  hell. 

God  has  a  controversy  with  this  nation,  and  he  calls  upon 
his  servants  to  proclaim  it ;  to  cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  but  to 
apply  His  Word,  and  never  will  the  controversy  be  settled  in 
any  other  way.  And  never  on  earth  was  a  grander  opportu- 
nity given  to  His  church  and  ministry  to  throw  themselves  on 
Him,  and  in  the  very  front  rank  in  this  conflict  demonstrate 
the  omnipotence  of  His  truth  and  righteousness,  fighting  the 
battle  with  His  Word,  and  gaining  the  victory  by  His  Spirit. 
Aflcr  a  fiery  denunciation  of  the  very  sins  of  which  we  are 
now  guilty,  God  describes  His  own  interposition,  and  says: 
"  So  shall  they  fear  the  name  of  the  Lord  from  the  West 
When  the  enemy  cometh  in  like  a  flood,  then  the  Spint  of  the 
Lord  shall  lift  up  a  standard  against  him."  What  and  where 
is  this  standard  ?  Is  it  in  the  Senate,  the  House,  the  Judiciary, 
the  political  expediency  of  men,  who  avow  that  they  recognize 


George  B.  Gheever. 


no  obligation  but  just  this,  of  the  highest  wages,  and  that  if 
Slavery  were  profitable  to  the  nation,  Slavery  would  be  right? 
Nay,  it  is  the  standard  of  God's  Word,  God's  justice,  God's 
righteousness,  lifted  up  by  His  Church,  carried  in  the  van  by 
His  Ministry,  and  His  Spirit  goes  with  it,  and  «  not  by  might 
nor  by  power,  but  by  My  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  is 
the  watchword.  This  is  our  work,  God  convinces  of  sin, 
subdues  the  heart,  subdues  the  nation,  only  by  His  Word,  His 
Spirit,  and  the  renunciation  of  any  great  system  of  iniquity  is 
hopeless  in  any  other  way. 

But  in  this  way  it  is  certain ;  and  if  God's  "Word  had  been 
applied  to  this  iniquity  of  Slavery  forty  years  ago  by  tbe 
churches  and  the  ministry,  instead  of  throwing  olF  their  respon- 
sibility by  ineffective  resolutions  in  General  Assemblies,  the 
whole  system  would  by  this  day  have  gone  out  of  existence. 
When  we  saw  the  plague  spreadii.g,  we  ought  to  have  rushed 
forth  long  ago  with  God's  fire.  If  they  had  stood  in  my  coun- 
sel, says  the  Lord  God  in  reference  to  this  same  sin,  and  the 
guilt  of  the  prophets  who  would  not  preach  against  it,  if  they 
had  stood  in  my  counsel,  and  proclaimed  my  Word,  they 
would  have  turned  the  people  from  their  iniquUy.  What  can 
be  more  solemn  than  this  assurance  ?  And  this  proclamation 
of  God's  Word  is  now  our  only  hope,  our  last  resort.  It  is  an 
infinite  mercy  that  we  still  are  able  to  throw  ourselves  upon 
it  Though  late,  yet  now,  if  we  will  be  faithful  to  God,  God 
will  be  faithful  to  us,  and  give  us  the  victory  over  this  mighty, 
reigning,  and  remorseless  sin,  in  that  way  in  which  only  it  i  i 
worth  gaining,  the  victory  by  conscience,  the  victory  by  Divine 
truth,  the  victory  by  the  claims  and  power  of  the  Gospel,  the 
victory  by  benevolence  and  love,  the  '  *rtory  by  Grod's  grace 
to  God's  everlasting  glory.  Then  shah  lae  text  be  fulfilled  in 
us,  "  For  the  Lord  will  not  cast  off  his  people,  nor  forsake  his 
inheritance ;  but  judgment  shall  return  unto  righteousness,  and 
all  the  upright  in  heart  shall  follow  it." 


><No  m&n  in  the  North  onght  any  longer  to  keep  silence,  when 
Northern  men  are  to  he  subject  to  the  hangiaan  £i>r  the  sake  of  a 
principle.  John  Brown  will  undoubtedly  be  hung.  Tis  well.  He 
headed  insurrection  and  became  accountable  for  bloodshed,  and  must 
be  hung,  ^is  well,  I  repeat.  Tis  better  than  that  he  should  live. 
$houI'\  I  live  unto  the  day,  I  will  thank  God  for  the  hanging  of  John 
Browh.  ...  I  believe  that  God  has  wisely  permitted  the  move- 
ment, and  furthermore,  that  on  the  day  that  that  man  is  hung,  the 
whole  system  of  Slavery — that  sum  of  human  villany— will  receive 
BO  fatal  a  stab,  that  it  will  never  recover.  Therein  I  rejoice —yea,  I 
will  rejoice  ~  seeing  in  it  the  progress  of  human  freedom.  For  this 
reason  I  shsU  thank  God  for  the  hanging  of  John  Brown.  There 
must  be  a  martyr  to  truth,  and  each  one  that  falls  is  a  bountiful  spring - 
sho  ever  upon  the  buried  seed." 

Bev.  Mb.  Belches. 


III. 

Sermon  by  Rev.  Edwin  M.  Wheelock.* 

IN  THE  grand  march  of  civilization,  there  has  been  in 
every  generation  of  men  since  time  began,  some  one 
enterprise,  some  idea,  some  conflict,  which  is  representative. 

'These  are  marked  places  on  the  world's  map  in  token  that 
something  was  then  settled.  That  then  and  there  mankind 
chose  between  two  opposing  modes  of  thought  and  life,  and 
made  an  upward  or  downward  step  on  that  stairway  which  is 
bottomed  on  the  pit,  and  reaches  to  the  Throne.  Theso 
places  are  always  battles  of  some  sort — often  defeats.  Paiul 
on  Mars'  Hill ;  Luther  nailing  his  theses  to  the  church  door; 
Columbus  on  the  quarter-deck  of  the  Santa  Maria;  Cromwell 
training  his  ironsides ;  Joan  d'Arc  in  the  flames;  Faust  bending 
over  his  types.  Such  as  these  are  the  focal  points  of  history, 
round  which  all 'others  cluster  and  revolve.  Uncounted 
myriads  of  events  take  place,  and  uncounted  myriads  of  men 
take  part  in  them,  but  only  one  or  two  contain  meat  and 
meaning.  Each  of  these  is  built  into  the  solid  walls  of  the 
world.  Such  an  object  is  the  man  and  his  deed  at  Harper's 
Ferry.  It  strikes  the  hour  of  a  new  era.  It  carries  Ameri- 
can history  on  its  shoulders.  The  bondman  has  stood  face 
ito  face  with  his  Moses.   The  Christ  of  anti-slavery  has  sent 

*  Of  Dover,  Ifew  Hnrapshire,  wbere  It  was  origlnnlly  preached.  It  Traa  repeated  st 
MdsIc  Ddll,  Bostoa,  on  Sunday,  November  27, 1E59,  from  Luke  iii.  15 : 
"  And  all  men  mused  in  tbcir  hearts  of  John,  whether  be  was  the  Christ  or  not."  . 

1177) 


178  Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


forth  its  "  John  "  and  forerunner.  The  solemn  exodus  of  the 
-American  slave  has  begun. 

When  the  national  sin  of  Egypt  had 'grown  enormous  and 
extreme,  the  Spirit  made  its  first  appeal  to  the  conscience,  — • 
the  moral  instinct^  —  the  religious  sense  of  the  offending  peo«> 
pie.  To  the  government,  incarnate  in  Pharaoh,  these  solemn 
words  were  slowly  thundered :  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  let  my 
people  go  that"  they  may  serve  me.  I  have  surely  seen  the 
affliction  of  my  people,  and  have  heard  their  cry,  and  I  am 
come  down  to  deliver  them.  I  know  the  oppression  whereby 
they  are  oppre  sed,  and  have  heard  their  sorrow."  And 
when  the  nation  bad  shown  itself  hardened  in  inhumanity 
and  sin,  and  every  moral  and  spiritual  appeal  had  been  vainly 
made,  then  we  read  that  the  "Lord  plagued  Egypt."  The 
chalice  of  agony  thev  had  so  foully  forced  upon  their  forlorn 
brethren,  was  pressed  to  their  own  lips,  and  the  slaveholders 
yielded  to  terror  what  they  had  brazenly  denied  to  justice 
and  right. 

This  is  the  record  of  slavery  always  and  every  where. 
'  Neyer  yet  in  the  history  of  man  was  a  tyrant  race  known  to 
loosen  its  grasp  of  the  victim's  throat,  save  by  the  pressure  of 
force.  Those  mistaken  friends  of  the  slave,  who  so  earnestly 
deprecate  and  condemn  that  "  war  cloud  no  larger  than  a  man's 
hand "  which  has  just  broken  over  Virginia,  and  who  teach, 
through  pulpit  and  press,  that  the  American  bondmen  can 
only  reach  freedom  through  purely  moral  and  peaceable 
means,  would  do  well  to  remember  that  never  yet,  never  yet  in 
the  experience  of  six  thousand  years,  have  the  fetters  been 
melted  off  from  a  race  of  slaves  by  means  purely  peaceable 
and  moral.  And  let  those  who  say  that  four  roillims  of  our 
people  can  only  gain  the  rights  of  manhood  through  the  con- 
sent of  one  quarter  of  a  million  who  hourly  rob  and  enslave 
them,  not  forget  that  compulsory  laws,.or  the  wrath  of  insur- 
rection alone,  has  ever  forced  that  consent  and  made  the 
slave-owner  willing.   Ah!  this  base  prejudice -of  caste,  this 


Edwin  "Kf.  Wheeldeki 


179 


scorn  of  a  despised  race  because  of  their  color,  Bow  it  m&tcta 
even  our  noblest  minds ! 

TJibse  eloquent  men  who,  four  years  ago,  when  the  faint, 
far-off  shadow  of  Slavery  fell  upon  Ufkiie  men  in  Kansas 
sounded  far  and  wide  the  Revolutionary  gospel,  "  Resistance 
to  tyrants  is  obedience  to  God,"  and  Who  called  Sharpe*s 
rifles  a  "  moral  agency : "  now,  when  the  same  "  moral  agency,** 
in  the  hands  of  the  same  men,  is  battling  in  a  cause  far  mora 
devoted  and  divine,  preach  the  soft  South-side  notes  of  sub« 
mission  and  peace  which  Slavery  loves  so  well  to  hsar. 

Could  that  be  right  in  '55  which  is  so  shockingly  wrong  itt 
*^9  ?  Can  inspiration  become  insanity  as  the  skin  shades 
from  dark  to  pale?  I  believe  there  is  a  great  truth  in  the 
doctrine  of  Non-resistance;  I  consider  it  as  perhaps' the  con- 
summate and  perfect  flower  of  Christianity.  But  I  also  know 
that  both  the  American  Church  and  the  American  State  have 
always  rejected  and  derided  that  doctrine.  They  inculcate 
the  duty  of  forcible  resistance  to  aggression,  of  self-defence, 
of  taking  the  life  of  offenders.  They  have  no  right  to  pre-^ 
scribe  to  forty  hundreds  of  thousands  of  our  nation  a  line  of 
duty  they  reject  for  themselves.  In  celebrating  Bunker  Hill, 
the  right  to  condemn  Harper's  Ferry  disappears.  For  more 
than  half  a  century  the  Spirit  of  God  has,  through  the  re- 
ligion, the  conscience,  the  humane  instincts,  the  heroic  tradi- 
tions of  bur  land,  been  pleading  with  the  American  Pharaoh 
to  let  his  people  go.  Bfit  in  vain.  Slavery  was  too  potent 
for  them  all;  now  the  "Plagues"  are  coming.  John  Brown 
is  the  first  Plague  launched  by  Jehovah  at  the  head  of  this 
immense  arid  embodied  wickedness.  The  others  will  follow, 
"  and  then  cometh  the  end." 

He  is,  like  his  namesake  in  Judea,  not  the  "One  that 
should  come.*'  He  did  not  bring  freedom  to  that  crushed 
and  trodden  race,  but  he  is  the  "  Forerunner "  —  the  voice  in 
the  slave  wilderness,  crying  to  a  nation  dead  in  trespasses 
iind  sins,  "Repent,  reform,  for  the  terrible  kingdom  of  God 
is  at  hand!" 


i8o  '  Edwin  - M.'  Wheelocki 

His  mission  was  to  inaugurate  slave  insurrection  as  the 
divine  weapon  of  the  anti-slavery  cause^  The  school  of  in-r 
surrection  is  the  only  school  open  to  the  slave.  Bk)bbery, 
tabernaded  in  the  flesh,  has  closed  every  other  door  of  hope 
upon  him.  This  it  cannot  close..  Do  we  shrink  &om  the 
bloodshed  that  would  follow  ? 

Ah  I  let  us  not  forget  that  in  Slavery  hhod  is  always  flow- 
ing. On  the  cotton,  and  sugar,  and  rice  fields,  more  of  our 
people  are  yearly  slain  by  overwork  and  starvation,  by  the 
bludgeon  and  the  whip, than  fell  at  Waterloo!  Is  their  blood 
"ditch-water?"  , 

Is  the  blood  of  insurrection  more  terrible  than  the  same 
blood  shed  daily  by  wicked  hands  on  the  plantation  ? 

Good  men  who  speak  of  the  "  crime  of  disturbing  the  peace 
of  Slavery  by  violence,"  speak  of  that  which  never  can  exist. 
Slavery  knows  no  peace.  Its  primal  condition  of  life  is 
Humanity  disarmed,  dismembered,  throttled.  Its  suUen  calm 
is  the  peace  of  the  vessel  captured  in  the  -Malayan  seas,  when 
resistance  has  ceased,  when  the  pirate  knife  presses  against 
the  throat  of  every  prostrate  man,  and  the  women  cower  from 
a  fate  worse  than  death. 

Its  tranquil  state  is  a  worse  war  than  the  worst  insur- 
rection. 

Slavery  is  a  perpetual  war  against  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, unarmed,  helpless,  and  bound.  Insurrection  is  but  a 
transient  war,  on  more  equal  terms,  dnd  with  the  weaker  side 
capable  at  least  of  flight.  Who  can  say  that "  the  last  state  is 
worse  than  the  first  ?"  A  true  peace  is  indeed  blessed.  The 
peace  that  comes  from  knowing  God,  and  loving  God,  and 
doing  the  will  of  God,  —  that  is  the  most  desirable. 

But  the  peace  of  insensibility,  the  peace  of  stupefaction,  the 
sleepy  peace  of  the  freezing  body,  that  is  not  desirable.  War 
is  better  than  that :  any  thing  is  better  than  that ;  for  that  is 
death.  No  tyrant  ever  surrenders  his  power,  except  under 
the  rod.   The  terrible  logic  of  history  teaches  that  no  such 


Edwirt  M.  WKeelocki  i8i 

wrohg  was  ever  cleansed  by  rose-water.  IVTien  highe)^ 
agencies  are:  faithless,  evil  is  used  by  God  to  crowd  out  worse 
evils.  The  slave,  who  vainly  tries  to  shake  off  his  fetters,  is 
schooled  by  every  such  effort  into  fuller  manhood.  No  race 
ever  hewed  off  its  chains  except  bjf  insurrection. 

Every  nation,  now  fi'ee,  has  graduated  through  that  fiery 
school;  The  annals  of  our  Saxon  blood,  from  William  of 
Normiandy  to  William  of  Orange,  is  a  record  of  insurrection, 
cloaked  by  history  under  the  name  of  civil  and  religious  wars. 
AH  our  noble  fathers  were  "traitors,"  Cromwell  was  a 
"fanatic,"  Washington  the  chief  of  "rebels."  "  Heaven,'* 
says  the  Arabian  prophet,  "  is  beneath  a  concave  of  swords." 

Let  us  remember  that  four  millions  of  our  nation  till  the 
soil  of  the  South,  and  that  three  hundred  thousand  persons 
hold  them  in  robbers'  bonds.  But  God  has  said,  '^The  soil  to 
him  who  tills  it."  And  the  North  will  be  a  furnace  of  insur- 
rections till  the  "Right  comes  uppermost,  and  Justice  is  done." 
The  slave  has  not  only  a  right  to  his  freedom  —  it  is  his  duty 
to  be  free.  And  every  northern  man  has  not  only  a  right  to 
help  the  slave  to  his  freedom,  it  is  his  religious  duty  to  help 
him,  each  choosing  his  own  means.  God  help  the  slave  to  his 
freedom  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood ;  but  if  that  cannot 
be,  then  upon  the  felon  soul  that  thrusts  himself  between 
God's  image  and  the  liberty  to  which  God  is  ever  calling 
him,' —  upon  //im,  I  say,  rests  all  the  guilt  of  the  fierce  conflict 
that  must  follow.  In  the  van  of  every  slave- insurrection 
inarches  *'  the  angel  of  the  Lord,"  smiting  with  plagues  the 
oppressor,  "  till  he  lets  t'le  people  go."  God  grant  that  the 
American  Pharaoh  may  not  harden  his  heart  against  the  warn- 
ings of  heaven,  till,  in  the  seven-fold  fiatne  of  insurrection, 
the  fetters  of  the  bondman  shall  be  forged  into  swords. 

But  if  that  dread  alternative  should  come,  and  Freedom 
and  Slavery  join  in  deathful  duel,  our  duty  still  is  pfain.  At 
once  must  the  great  North  step  between,  either  to  prevent  the 
Struggle,  if  we  can,  or  shorten  it  as  best  we  may,  by  **  break- 
.16  . 


i82  Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 

iDg  every  yoke."  Our  Fathei^  thought  that  the  Federal 
Constitution  had  given  Slavery  its  death-blosv.  Jefferson 
thought  the  Ordinance  of  1787  had  dug  its  grave.  The  men 
of  1808  believed  that  the  destruction  of  the  Slave  Trade  had 
dried  up  its  fountains.  Tiie  result  has  mocked  them  all.  A 
half  century  has  rolled  by»  and  now  it  is  smothering  in  terror 
and  murder  fifluien  States,  and  throwing  its  dark  shadow  over 
all  the  rest.  Is  this  to  go  on  ?  John  Brown  said,  "  No ! "  and 
marched  to  Harper's  Ferry.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  term 
this  act  the  beginning  of  bloodshed  and  of  civil  war ;  never 
could  there  be  a  greater  error.  We  have  had  bloodshed  and 
civil  war  for  the  last  ten  years;  yes,  for  the  last  ten  years. 
The  campaign  began  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Union  dates  from  that  day,  and  we 
nave  had  no  constitution  since.  On  that  day  Daniel  Webster 
was  put  to  death.  Ah  I  and  such  a  death  I  And  from  that 
time  to  this  there  has  not  been  a  month  that  has  not  seen  the 
soil  of  Freedom  invaded,  our  citizens  kidnapped,  imprisoned, 
shot,  or  driven  by  thousands  into  Canada.  This  once  free 
North,  of  ours  has  been  changed  into  an  American  Coast  of 
Guinea,  where  the  slave-pirate  of  Virginia,  with  the  President 
of  these  United  States  as  his  blood-hound,  hunts  bis  human 
prey  as  his  brother-pirate  on  the  negro  coast  hunts  there. 
When  the  kidnappers  on  the  African  coast  Would  capture  a 
town,  they  surround  it  in  the  night,  and  steal  the  inhabitants 
under  cover  of  the  darkness. 

But  our  largest  cities  have  been  again  and  again  captured 
in  full  daylight,  and  by  a  mere  handful  of  negro-thieves ;  and 
their  citizens  stolen  without  even  the  snapping  of  a  gun-lock. 
The  proud  city  of  Boston  has  been  taken  three  times.  I 
myself  have  seen  two  hundred  thousand  citizens,  nearly  two 
hundred  police,  and  Meen  hundred  well-armed  soldiers,  sur- 
render without  firing  a  shot,  to  about  sixty  mariues,  who  held 
them  all  passive  prisoners  for  ten  days.  And  yet  these  were 
the  children  of  men  who  started  up  revolutionists  the  instant 


Edwio  M.  Wheelock.  183 


the  hand  of  government  was  thrust  into  their  pockets  to  take 
,  a  few  pence  from  them  I "  No,  it  is  not  true  that  the  conSict 
itf  Harper's  Ferry  is  the  beginning  of  a  civil  war,— that 
would  be  like  saying  that  the  capture  of  Yorktown  was  the 
beginning  of  the  revolutionary  struggle.  The  meaning  of  that 
new  sign  is  this  s  Freedom,  for  ten  years  weakly  standing  on 
the  defensive,  and  for  ten  years  defeated,  has  now  become  the 
assailant,  and  has  now  gained  the  victory. 

The  Bunker  Hill  of  our  second  revolution  has  been 
fought,  and  the  second  Warren  has  paid  the  glorious  fbr> 
feit  of  his  life. 

John  Brown  felt  that  to  enslave  a  man  is  to  commit  the 
greatest  possible  crime  within  the  reach  of  human  capacity. 

He  was  at  war,  therefore,  with  the  slave  system.  He  felt 
that  its  vital  principle  was  the  most  atrocious  atheism,  with* 
holding  the  key  of  knowledge,  abrogating  the  marriage  rela^ 
tion,  rending  families  asunder  at  the  auction  block,  making 
the  State  that  protects  it  a  band  of  pirates,  and  the  Church 
that  enshrines  it  a  baptized  brothel.  He  knew  that  the  cause 
needed  not  talk,  not  eloquence,  but  action,  life,  principle  walk- 
ing on  two  feet.  He  had  small  faith  in  politics.  He  saw  that 
die  beau  ideal  of  a  Democrat  was  one  "that  could  poll  the 
most  votes  with  the  fewest  men."  And  that  the  object  of 
Bepublicanism,  during  the  next  year,  would  be  to  find  the  most 
available  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  And  he  decided  that 
the  barbarism  that  holds  in  bloody  chains  four  milliofra  of  dtiir 
people,  for  the  purposes  of  lucre  and  lust;  "that  makes  every 
sixth  maa  and  woman  in  the  country  liable  to  be  sold  sft 
auction ;  that  forbids,  by  statute,  every  sixth  man  and  woman 
in  'the  nation  to  learn  to  read;  that  makes  it  an  indictable 
pSence  to  teach  every  sixth  man  and  woman  in  the  country  , 
the  alphabet ;  that  forbids  every  sixth  man  and  woman  in  the 
nation  to  have  a  husband  or  wife,  and  that  annihilates  the 
sanctity  of  marriage  by  statute,  systematically,  and  of  purpose, 
in  regard  to  one  sixth  ptirt  of  a  nation  calling  itself  Christian ; 


i84 


Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


he  decided,  I  say,  that  such  a  barbarism,  was,  in  itself,  an 
organized  cmd  perpetual  war  against  God  and  man,  and  could 
be  best  met  bj  the  direct  issue  of  arms.  For  he  was  no  sen- 
timentalist and  no  non>resistant. 

He  believed  in  human  brotherhood,  in  George  Washington, 
in  Bunker  Hill,  and  in  a  God,  ''all  of  whose  attributes  take 
sides  against  the  oppressor."  He  startled  our  effeminacy 
with  the  sight  of  a  man  whose  seminal  principle  was  justice, 
whose  polar  star  was  right.  No  wonder  he  is  awful  to  poli- 
ticians. The  idea  which  made  our  nation,  which  split  us  off 
from  the  British  Empire,  and  denying  which  we  begin  to 
die, — the  idea  of  the  supreme  sacredness  of  man,  iis  speaking 
through  his  rifle  and  through  his  lips. 

He  was  a  Puritan  on  both  sides;  and  that  blood  is  always 
revolutionary.  He  had  the  blood  of  English  Hampden,  who, 
rather  than  pay  an  unjust  tax  of  twenty  shillings,  began  a 
movement  that  hurled  a  king  from  his  throne  to  the  block. 

He  had  the  blood  of  Hancock  and  Adams,  who,  when  King 
George  laid  his  hand  on  the  American  pocket,  aroused  every, 
New  Englander  to  be  a  revolution  in  himself. 

He  knew  that  the  crimes  of  the  slave  faction  a^irist 
humanity  were  more  atrocious  by  far  than  those  which  turned 
England  into  a  republic,  and  the  Stuarts  into  exile ;  and  his 
glorious  fault  it  was  that  he  could  not  look  calmly  on  while 
four  millions  of  our  people  are  trodden  in  the  bloody  miro 
of  despotism. 

It  is  the  fashion  now  to  call  him  a  ''crazy"  fanatic;  but 
history  will  do  the  head  of  John  Brown  the  same  ample 
justice  that  even  his  enemies  give  to  his  heart. 

It  is  no  impossible  feat  to  plant  a  permanent  armed  insur- 
rection in  Virginia.  The  mountains  are  near  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  and  within  a  few  days*  march  lies  the  Great  Dismal 
Swamp,  whose  interior  depths  are  forever  untrodden  save  by 
the  feet  of  fugitive  slaves.  A  few  resolute  white  men,  har- 
bored in  its  deep  recesses,  raising  the  flag  of  slave  revolt,  would 


Edwin  Mi'  Wheelock.  185 

gather  thousands  to  their  standavd,  would  convulse  the  whole 
State  with  paniC(^  and  make  servile  war  one  of  the  inseparable 
felicities  of  Slavery.  ; 

Let  us  not  forget  that  three  hundred  half-armed  Indians, 
housed  in  similar  swamps  in  Florida,  waged  a  seven  years' 
war  against  the  whole  power  of  the  United  States,  and  were 
taken,  at  last,  not  by  warfare,  but  by  treachery  and  bribes. 
A  single  year  of  such  warfare  would  unhinge  the  slave  ^tion 
in  Virginia.  Said  Napoleon,  when  preparing  for  the  invasion 
of  England,  "  I  do  not  expect  to  conquer  England ;  but  I  shall 
do  more, — I  shall  ruin  it.  -  The  mere  presence  of  my  troops 
on  her  coast,  whether  defeated  or  not,  will  shake  her  gov- 
ernment to  the  ground,  and  destroy  her  social  system." 

With  equal  correctness  reasoned  the  hero  and  miartyr  of 
Harper's  Ferry.  He  knew  that  slave  revolt  could  be  planted 
upon  as  permanent  and  chronic  a  basis  as  the  Undergi'ound 
Bailroad,  and  that  once  done,  slavery  would  quickly  ble^d  to 
death.  His  plan  was  not  Quixotic.  His  means  were  ample. 
None  so  well  as  he  knew  the  weakness  of  this  giant  sin;  Had 
he  avoided  the  Federal  arm,  he  might  have  overrun  the 
heaving,  rocking  soil  of  the  fifteen  States,  breakiug  every  slave 
cham  in  his  way;  while  the  "terrors  of  the  Loixl"  were 
smiting  to  the  heart  of  this  huge  barbarism,  with  one  ghastly 
sense  of  guilt,  and  feebleness,  and  punishment. 

We  have  seen  the  knees  of  a  great  slave  State  smiting 
together,  and  her  teeth  chattering  with  fear,  while  wild  and 
craven  panic  spread  far  and  wide,  from  the  slight  skirmish  of 
a  single  day,  with  less  than  a  score  of  men,  and  can  judge 
somewhat  of  her  position  if  insurrection  had  become  an  insti- 
tution in  her  midst.  If  Brown  had  not,  in  pity  to  his  prisoners, 
lingered  in  the  captured  town  till  beset  by  the  Federal  bayo- 
nets, he  would  now  have  been  lodged  in  the  mountains  isr 
swamps,  while  every  comer  of  the  State  would  have  flamed 
with  revolt.  He  did  not  "throw  his  life  away;"  he  dies  a 
"natural  death,"  —  to  be  hung  is  the  only  natural  death  pos- 
16* 


iB6  Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


sible  for  a  true  man  in  Virginia.  Did  the  farmers  who  stood 
behind  the  breastwork  on  Bunker  Hill  "throw  away  their 
lives  "  Was  Warren  a  "  monomaniac  "  ?  Were  the  eighty 
half-armed  militia,  who  stood  up  at  Lexington  green  against 
the  Wv^ight  of  a  great  monarchy,  and  "fired  tlie  shot  heard 
round  the  world,"  all  madmen  ? 

Is  death  in  a  feather  bed  to  be  made  the  single  test  of 
sanity  ?  Last  year  the  word  insurrection  affected  even  anti- 
slavery  men  with'  a  shudder ;  next  year,  it  will  be  uttered  in 
every  Northern  Legislature,,  as  a  thing  of  course.  Is  that 
nothing?  Pharaoh  may  sit  for  a  while  on  the  throne,  but  he 
sils  tremblituf. 

To  hush  the  click  of  dollars,  and  the  rustle  of  bank  bills 
over  the  land,  if  only  for  an  hour,  that  thie  still  small  voice  of 
God's  justice  may  be  heard;  —  is  the  life  thrown  away  that 
has  done  so  much  ?  Can  our  "  sane lives  show  a  wealthier 
record?  His  scheme  is  no  failure,  but  a  solemn  success. 
Wherein  he  failed,  bis  foes  have  come  to  his  aid.  T^e  great- 
ness of  their  fears  reveals  the  extent  of  his  triumph.  John 
Brown  has  not  only  taken  Virginia  and  Governor  Wise,  he 
has  captuixid  the  whole  slave  faction,  North  and  South.  All 
his  foes  have  turned  abolition  missionaries.  They  toil  day  aiid 
night  to  do  his  bidding,  and  no  President  has  sO  many  servants 
as  he.  The  best  Sharpe's  rifle  in  all  his  band  would  scarcely 
throw  a  bullet  a  single  mile,  but  in  e^ery  corner  of  every 
township  of  thirty>three  States,  the  press  of  the  slave  party 
is  hurling  his  living  and  inspired  words — words  filled  with 
God's  own  truth  and  power,  and  so  more  deadly  to  despotism 
than  hosts  of  armed  men. 

The  Spartan  band  of  chivalry,  fifteen  hundred  strong, 
quaking  on  the  hills  round  Harper's  Ferry,  for  a  whole  day, 
unable  to  look  the  old  roan  in  the  face ;  then  murdering  a 
prisoner,  unarmed  and  bound  hand  and  foot,  who  could  find  in 
that  shambles  no  man,  and  but  one  woman  to  vainly  plead  for 
his  life;  then  blowing  off  the  &ce  of  a  man  who  cried  for 


Mmn  M.  Wheelock. 


qiiarter;  lijien  hacking  with  seven  wounds  the  bod7  of  the 
gray-haired  leader  after  he  had  yielded;  then  before  the  eyes 
of  the  bereaved  and  bleeding  father,  crowding  the  body  of  his 
son  into  a  "box  for  dissection;"  then  with  obscene  rage  and 
threats  insulting  the  aged  chief  as  he  lay  woundied  and  mana- 
cled, upon  his  cot;  the  mock  trial,  overleaping  with  indecent 
haste  the  ancient  forms  of  law ;  the  hurried  sentence ;  the 
mustering  of  hundreds  of  armed  men,  filling  with  horse,  fooi^ 
and  cannon,  every  avenue  to  his  jail;  the  whole  South  on 
tiptoe  with  apprehension;  two  great  States  in  an  ecstasy  of 
fear;  Virginia  turning  herself  into  an  armed  garrison  ;  the 
slave  journals  of  the  North  shrieking  in  full  concert.  Behold 
on  what  a  platform  the  insane  rage  and  fear  of  his  foes  has 
lifted  this  anti-slavery  veteran  to  the  stars !  Strangling  John 
Brown  will  not  stop  the  earthquake  that  has  followed  his 
shattering  blow  ;  or  if  it  does,  science  teaches  us  that  when 
the  ^thquake  stops  the  volcano  begins.  His  aim  was  to 
render  Slaveiy  insecure,  and  he  has  succeeded.  "He  has 
forced  the  telegraph,  the  press,  the  stump*  the  bar-room,  the 
parlor,  to  repeat  the  dangerous  story  of  Insurrection  in  every 
corner  of  the  South."  From  Maryland  to  Florida,  there  is 
not  a  slave  who  does  not  have  the  idea  of  Freedomi  quickened 
within  him  by  the  outbreak  of  Harper's  Ferrj.  Like  the 
[Druid  stone,  which  the  united  force  of  a  hundred  men  could 
iiot  move,  while  a  child's  finger  rightly  applied,  rocked  it  to 
its  base,  this  dark  system  of  outrage  and  wrong,  which  has 
stood  for  thirty  years  moveless  against  the  political  power  of 
the  North,  against  the  warnings  of  an  insulted  Christianity, 
and  against  the  moral  sentiment  of  the  world,  now  rocks  and 
trembles  as  the  finger  of  this  God-fearing  Puritan  presses 
against  its  weak  spot.  The  fatal  secret  has  now  become 
public  news.  Invulnerable  to  all  moral  appeals,  it  yields,  it 
dissolves,  it  dtes^  before  the  onset  of  force.  Like  the  Swiss 
valleys,  the  first  clash  of  arms  brings  down  the  avalanche. 
From  the  martyrdom  of  Brown  dates  a  new  era  of  the  anti* 


i88 


Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


slavery  cause.  To  moral  agitation  will  now  be  added  phys- 
ical. To  argument,  action.  The  dispensation  or  doctrine  will 
be  superseded  by  the.  higher  dispensation  of  fact.  The  appeals 
of  the  North  will  now  be  applied  to  the  terrors  as  well  as  to 
the  conscience  of  this  Great  Barbarism.    Other  devoted  men 

I 

will  follow  in  the  wake  of  Brown,  avoiding  his  error,  and  will 
carry  on  to  its  full  results  the  work  he  has  begun.  Slave 
propagandism  we  have  had  long  enough.  We  are  likely  now 
to  have  some  liberty  propagandism. 

I  rejoice  to  see  a  man  whose  banner  bears  no  uncertain 
sign.  The  North  wants  no  more  corn»stalk  generals,  but  a 
real  general,  one  who  is  both  platform  and  party  in  himself. 
He  is  a  Crusader  of  Justice,  a  Knight  Tcmpler  in  Christ's 
holy  war^^ —  a  war  which  shall  never  cease  but  with  the  snap 
of  the  last  chain  link.  His  glory  is  genuine.  Like  that  of 
Washington,  it  will  stand  the  test  of  time.  Of  the  American 
masses,  he,  and  such  as  he,  are  the  salt  :  and  the  sufficient 
answer  to  all  criticism  upon  him  is  his  example.  But  he  was 
.  "defeated;"  yes,  and  all  first  class  victories,  from  that  of 
Calvary  downward3,*are  defeats.  Such  investments  do  not 
usually  yield  "semi-annual  dividends."  All  Grod's  angels 
come  just  as  he  comes :  looking  most  forlorn,  marked  with 
defeat  and  death,  "  despised  and  rejected  of  men."  True  he 
"failed,"  but  to  him  who  works  with  God,  failure,  fetters,  and 
public  execution  are  kindly  forces,  and  all  roads  lead  him  on 
to  victory. 

He  had  a  live  religion.  He  believed  that  God  spake  to 
him  in  Visions  of  the  night.  Yes,  incredible  as  it  may  seem, 
this  man  actually  believed  in  God !  Why,  he  must  have  been 
"  mad ! "  While  ecclesiastics  mourn  a  suspense  of  faith," 
and  teach  that  the  only  way  to  cleanse  America  from  her  sins 
is  to  instantly  dress  up  the  church  in  a  second-hand  uniform 
and  cocked  hat,  this  saint  of  the  broad  church  did  not  take  up 
the  "  slop  trade,"  nor  cry  "  old  clo' "  in  the  court  of  Zion.  He 
was  at  his  apostolic  work,  "  casting  out  devils."   Clearly  the 


Edwin  M.  Wheelock.  189 


"snspense  of  faith"  had  not  reached  Atm.  It  was  the  doctrine 
of  John  Brown  that  we  should  interfere  with  the  slaveholders 
to  rescue  the  slave.  I  hope  no  anti-slavery  man  will  have  the 
weakness  to  apologize  for,  explain,  or  deny  such  a  self-evident 
truth.  He  could  not  see  that  it  was  heroic  to  fight  against  a 
petty  tax  on  tea,  and  endure  seven  years'  warfare  for  a 
political  right,  and  a  crime  to  fight  in  favor  of  restoring  an 
outraged  race  to  those  Divine  birthrights  of  which  they  had 
been  for  two  centuries  robbed. 

He  knew  that  every  slave,  on  every  plantation,  has  the 
right  from  his  God  and  Creator  to  be  free,  and  that  he  could 
not  devote  his  life  to  a  nobler  aim  than  to  forward  their  free- 
dom. Every  one  feels  that  it  is  noble.  Any  man  with  the 
golden  rule  before  him  should  be  ashamed  to  say  less  than 
this.  He  is  true  to  the  lo^c  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  and 
no  American  is  so  loyal  to  the  meaning  of  the  Fourth  of  July 
as  he.  He  is  one  of  God's  nobility,  who  had  outgrown  selfish 
and  private  aims.  And  his  last  act  is  so  brave  and  humane 
that  politicians  stand  aghast,  one  party  shrieking  as  if  noise 
was  "  the  chief  end  of  man ; "  while  the  other  protests  with 
both  hands  upraised,  "  "We  didn't  help  them  do  it."  Of  course 
they  didn't ;  it  isn't  in  them. 

Ah,  the  principle  of  the  Declaration  of  '76  is  utterly  dying 
out  of  our  minds.  It  is  boldly  sneered  at  as  "  a  glittering 
generality"  by  some,  and  disregarded  by  all.  There  is  to-day 
not  a  State,  not  a  party,  not  a  religious  sect  in  the  nation  that 
accepts  that  Declaration :  —  only  one  old  man  in  a  Southern 
prison  dares  believe  in  it.  The  cause  of  human  liberty  in 
this  land  needs  speeches  and  prayers,  eloquence  and  money  ; 
but  it  has  now  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  for  the  second 
time,  found  what  it  needed  more  than  these ;  what  the  Hebrew 
Exodus  found  in  Moses;  what  Puritan  England  hailed  in 
Oliver  Cromwell;  what  revolutionary  France  has  sought  in 
vain  —  A  Man  ! 

And  let  no  one  who  glories  in  the  revolutionary  struggles 


igo  Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


of  our  fatbers  for  their  freedom,  deny  the  right  of  the  Ameri- 
can bondman  to  imitate  their  high  example.  And  those  who 
rejoice  in  the  deeds  of  a  Wallace  or  a  Tell,  a  "Washington  or 
a  Warren ;  who  cherish  with  unbounded  gratitude  the  name 
of  Lafayette  for  volunteering  his  aid  in  behalf  of  an  oppressed 
people  in  a  desperate  crisis,  and  at  the  darkest  hour  of  their 
fate,  cannot  refuse  equal  merit  to  this  strong,  free,  heroic  man, 
who  has  freely  consecrated  all  his  powers,  and  the  labors  of 
his  whole  life,  to  the  help  of  the  most  needy,  friendless,  and 
unfortunate  of  mankind. 

The  picture  of  the  Good  Samaritan  will  live'to  all  future 
ages,,  as  the  model  of  human  excellence,  for  helping  one  whom 
he  chanced  to  find  in  need. 

John  Brown  did  more.  He  went  to  seek  those  who  were 
lost  that  he  might  save  them.  He  a  fanatic !  He  a  madman ! 
He  a  traitor !  Yes,  and  the  fanatics  of  this  age  are  the  star- 
crowned  leaders  of  the  next.  And  the  madmen  of  to-day  are 
the  heroes  of  to-morrow. 

It  is  we  who  have  committed  treason,  we  who  here  in 
America,  roofed  over  with  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
turn  more  people  into  merchandise  than  existed  here  when 
our  fathers  made  that  solemn  declaration ;  we,  who  claim  that 
the  right  to  buy  and  sell  men  and  women  is  as  sacred  as  the 
right  to  buy  and  sell  horses;  we,  who  build  our  national 
temple  on  the  profaned  birthrights  of  humanity,  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Bill  being  the  chief  corner-stone.  But  this  "  traitor  "  is 
Live  America,  and  carries  the  Declaration  of  '76  in  his  heart. 
I  think  the  time  is  fast  coming  when  you  will  be  forced  to  do 
as  he  has  done.  You  will  be  obliged  to  do  it  by  the  inroads 
of  slavery  upon  your  own  liberties  and  rights.  What  you  are 
not  brought  into  by  conscience,  you  will  be  shamed  into,  and 
what  you  are  not  shamed  into,  you  will  be  driven  into  by  the 
slaveholders  themselves.  Slavery  will  neither  let  peace,  nor 
liberty,  nor  the  Union  stand. 

A  few  years  more  will  roll  away,  this  tyranny  steadily 


Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


marching  forward,  till  the  avalanche  comes  down  upon  you  all, 
and  you  will  be  obliged  to  take  the  very  ground  on  which 
stands  this  high-souled  and  devoted  man. 

Editors  and  Politicians  call  him  mad,  and  so  he  is  to 

them.  For  he  has  builded  his  manly  life  of  more  than  three- 
score years  upon  the  faith  and  fear  of  God — a  thing  which 
Editors  and  Politicians,  from  the  tirae  of  Christ  till  now,  have 
always  counted  as  full  proof  of  insanity. 

One  such  man  makes  total  depravity  impossible,  and  proves 
that  American  greatness  died  not  with  Washington. 

The  gallows  from  which  he  ascends  into  heaven  wHl  be  in 
our  politics  what  the  cross  is  in  our  religion  —  the  sign  and 
symbol  of  supreme  self-devotedness ;  and  from  his  sacrificial 
blood  the  temporal  salvation  of  four  millions  of  our  people 
yet  shall  spring.  It  takes  a  wlwle  geological  epoch  to  form 
the  one  precious  dr6p  we  call  diamond;  and  a  thousand  j^ears 
of  Saxon  progress,  every  step  of  which  has  been  from  scaffold 
to  scaffold,  and  from  stake  to  stake,  have  gone  to  the  making 
of  this  shining  soul.  That  Virginia  scaffold  is  but  the  setting 
of  the  costly  gem,  whose  sparkle  shall  light  up  the  faces  of  an 
uncounted  army.  When  the  old  Puritan  struck  so  stout  a 
blow  for  the  American  slave,  it  rang  on  the  fetters  of  thirty- 
three  enslaved  republics,  where  every  foot  of  soil  is  lawful 
kidnapping  ground,  and  where  every  man,  white  or  black, 
holds  his  liberty  at  the  will  of  a  slaveholder,  a  commissioner, 
or  a  marshal. 

The  only  part  of  America 'which  has  been,  in  this  genera- 
tion, conquered  for  God,  is  the  few  square  feet  of  land  on 
which  stood  the  engine-house  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

Carlyle  somewhere  says  that  a  "rotten  stu»np  will  stand  a 
long  time  if  not  shaken."  John  Brown  has  shaken  this  stump 
of  the  old  Barbarisms ;  it  remains  for  us  to  tear  out  every 
root  it  has  sent  into  the  soil  of  the  North.  Unsupported  by 
these,  the  next  breath  of  insurrection  will  topple  it  to  the 
ground. 


192  Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


:  Said  tbe  ancestors  of  this  man  two  centuries  ago  to  the 
Long  Parliament,  "  If  you  want  your  laws  obeyed,  make  them 
fit  to  be  obeyed,  and  if  not — Cromwell,"  and  the  devilism  of 
England  heard  and  trembled.  Their  child  of  to-day  has  but 
bounded  forth  the  same  idea,  and  the  devilism  of  America 
trembles  likewise. 

It  is  fitting  that  he  should  die.  He  has  done  enough,  and 
borne  enough.  One  such  example  of  self-forgetting  heroism, 
sanctified  by  such  tenderness  and  faith,  meeting  the  eye  and 
filling  the  heart  of  the  civilized  world,  spreading  its  noble 
inspiration  far  and  wide  through  a  continent,  quickening  the 
pulses  of  heroism  in  a  million  souls,  is  God's  pnme  benefac- 
tion to  our  time  — the  immortal  fire  that  keeps  humanity's 
highest  hopes  aflame. 

To  lift  a  nation  out  of  the  ignoble  rut  of  money-making, 
stagnation,  and  moral  decay.  Freedom  has  offered  the  blood 
of  her  noblest  son,  and  the  result  is  worth  a  thousand  times 
the  costly  price. 

On  the  second  day  of  December  he  is  to  be  strangled  in  a 
Southern  prison,  for  obeying  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  But 
to  be  hanged  in  Virginia  is  like  being  crucified  in  tferusa- 
lem — it  is  the  last  tribute  which  sin  pays  to  virtue. 

John  Brown  realized  the  New  Testament.  He  felt  that  he 
owed  the  same  duty  to  the  black  man  on  the  plains  of  Vir- 
ginia that  he  did  to  his  blood  brother.    This  was  his  insanity. 

He  does  not  belong  to  this  age ;  he  reaches  back  to  the 
first  three  centuries  of  the  Christian  Church,  when  it  was  a 
proverb  among  the  followers  of  Jesus,  "No  good  Christian 
dies  in  his  bed."  Their  fanaticism  was  his  fanaticism.  Hear 
his  words  to  the  slave  court  which  tried  him  for  his  life,  with- 
out giving  him  time  to  obtain  counsel  whom  he  could  trust, 
and  while  he  was  partially  deaf  from  his  wounds,  and  unable 
to  stand  on  his  feet :  "  Had  I  interfered  in  this  manner  in  be- 
half of  the  rich,  the  powerful,  the  intelligent,  thf^  so-fallt-d 
great,  —  or  in  behalf  of  any  of  their  friends,  either  fjitlicr, 


Edwin  M.  Wheeloek. 


ViotheTf  wife,  or  child,  or  any  of  that  class, — and  suffered  and 
sacrificed  what  I  have  in  this  enterprise,  it  would  have  been 
all  right.  Every  man  in  this  court  would  have  deemed  it  an 
act  worthy  of  reward.  This  court  acknowledges,  too,  as  I 
suppose,  the  vtdidity  of  the  law  of  God.  I  «ee  a  book  kissed, 
which  I  suppose  to  be  the  Bible,  which  teaches  me  that  'all 
thiogs  whatsoever  that  men  should  do  to  me,  I  should  do  even 
so  to  them.'  It  teaches  me  farther  to  *  remember  them  that 
are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them.'  I  tried  to  act  up  to  that 
instruction.  I  say  that  I  am  yet  too  young  to  understand 
that  God  is  any  respecter  of  persons.  I  believe  that  to  inter- 
fere as  I  have  done  in  behalf  of  his  despised  poor,  I  did  no 
wrong,  but  right.  Now,  if  it  is  deemed  necessary  that  I 
shoald  forfeit  my  life,  and  mingle  my  blood  with  the  blood  of 
my  children,  and  with  the  blood  of  millions  in  this  slave  land, 
whose  rights  are  disregarded  by  wicked  laws,  I  say,  let  it  be 
done."  Ah,  friends,  how  near  is  that  land  to  moml  ruin 
where  such  men  are  counted  ''mad"!  Virginia  that  day 
doomed  to  death  her  best  friend  —  he  who  would  have  saved 
her  from  falling  some  day  by  the  hands  she  has  manacled. 

"  I  know  fiill  well  that  were  I  a  slave  and  nuserable,  for- 
bidden to  call  my  wife,  my  child,  my  right  arm,  my  own  soul, 
my  own,  —  liable  to  be  chained,  and  whipped,  and  sold, — the 
voice  that  should  speak  Freedom  to  me  would  be  holier  in  its 
accents  than  the  music  of  hymn  and  cathedral — as  sacred  as 
the  voice  of  an  angel  descending  from  God. 

"  In  the  eye  that  should  be  turned  on  me  with  rescue  and 
help,  a  light  would  beam  before  which  the  shine  of  the  sun 
would  grow  dim. 

"  The  hand  that  should  be  stretched  out  to  smite  off  my 
chains,  it  would  thrill  me  like  the  touch  of  Christ  In  his  most 
blessed  name,  what  on  earth  have  his  followers  to  do,  what 
are  they  here  for,  if  not  to  fly  to  the  help  of  the  oppressed,  to 
maintain  the  holy  cause  of  human  freedom,  and  to  stand  out 
the  unyielding  opponents  of  outrage  and  wrong  ?" 
17 


194 


Edwin  M.  Wheelock. 


And  this,  my  friends,  is  the  sacreO,  the  radiant  "  Treason" 
of  John  Brown.  God  bless  him  and  all  such  traitors,  say  I, 
and  let  the  Great  North  respond  Amen. 

The,  State  that  has  parted  with  the  bones  of  the  dead 
"Washington,  and  that  has,  long  since,  parted  with  the  last 
shred  of  his  principles,  may  now  fittingly  put  the  living 
Washington  to  death;  but  after  all,  it  is  but  little  that  the 
rage  of  man  can  do. 

There  is  One  above  greater  than  Virginia;  and  across  the 
obscene  roar  of  the  slave  power  comes  His  voice,  sounding  in 
the  ears  of  that  scarred  and  manacled  old  man,  Inasmuch  as 
ye  did  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  my  brethren,  ye  did  it  unto 
me."  And  again,  "He  that  loseth  his  life  for  my  sake,  shall 
find  it  again" 

Yet  a  few  days,  and  the  bells  of  New  England  will  toll  foi 
her  departed  hero ;  not  slain,  but  made  immortal. 

He  goes  to  the  Puritan  heaven  of  his  free  forefathers.  He 
leaves  with  us  two  sacred  trusts;  his  inspired  example 
preaching  to  all,  "Go  thou  and  do  likewise;"  and  the  be- 
reaved families,  whose  husbands  and  fathers  have  fallen  while 
fighting  our  battle. 

God  help  us  to  be  faithful  to  these  trusts,  and  to  be  trtie  to 
John  Brown's  life  and  example. 


lY. 

Sermon  by  Fales  Henry  Newhall.* 


THE  execution  of  John  Brown  sets  forth  in  bold,  clear 
relief  the  mortal  conflict  between  Christianity  and 
American  Slavery.  The  smouldering  fires  carefully  trodden 
down  for  years  and  generations,  here  burst  forth  in  a  volcanic 
blaze,  that  rises  as  if  to  "  lick  the  stars."  There  is  a  shaking 
of  statesmen  and  States  over  all  the  nation,  a  throbbing  of 
telegraphic  wires  fi-om  centre  to  circumference,  a  swaying  to 
and  fro  of  vast  populations,  a  rushing  of  armed  squadrons 
along  the  national  highways,  and  all  to  tread  down  that  flame 
that  comes  roaring  "up  from  the  burning  core  below." 
Christianity  and  Slavery  have  been  trying  to  live  together  in 
America.  Churchmen  and  Statesmen,  Synods  and  Confer- 
ences, Tract  Societies  and  Missionary  Societies,  (alas !  that 
a  Christian  and  Christian  minister  should  be  forced  to  speak 
the  humiliating  words!)  have  striven  to  train  them  into 
brotherly  harmony.  It  is  as  if  men  should  strive  to  build 
a  house  of  gunpowder  upon  a  foundation  of  fire ;  as  if  they 
should  strive  to  train  the  lightnings  to  sport  harmlessly  in  a 
magazine.    To  understand  this  event,  and  rightly  read  its 

*  Entitled  "The  Conflict  in  America:  a  Fanerol  Discourse  occasioned  by  the  Death 
of  John  Brown  of  Oaawatomie,  \vho  entered  into  Reat  from  the  Gallows,  at  Charles- 
town,  Virginia,  December  2,  1859 : "  preached  at  the  Warren  Street  Methodist  Epis- 
.  copal  Chnrch,  Roxbnry,  Massachusetts,  December  4, 1859,  from  Judges  xvi.  30 : 

"  And  Samson  said,  let  mo  die  with  the  Philistines,  And  he  bowed  himself  with 
all  his  might ;  and  tlie  bouse  fell  upon  the  lords,  and  upon  all  the  people  that  were 
therein.  So  tho  dead  which  he  slew  at  his  death  were  more  than  they  which  he  slew 
in  his  life." 

(195) 


196 


Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


lessons,  we  must  understand  this  conflict  in  all  its  fierceness 
and  magnitude.  Here  is  a  simple,  faithful,  heroic  Christian 
man  drawing  the  sword  upon  American  Slavery,  and  cheer- 
fully dying  in  the  conflict.  Christianity  and  Slavery,  these 
two  sworn  eternal  foes,  are  drawn  up  face  to  face  in  this  land 
in  battle  array ;  and  the  campaign  is  one  in  which  the  one  or 
the  other  is  certain  to  perish.  John  Brown  has  fallen  in  the 
fight;  no  man  can  understand  why  he  fell,  who  does  not 
understand  what  that  enemy  is  against  whom  he  drew  the 
Bword,  and  what  that  Christianity  is  which  nerved  his  heart 
Let  us  look,  for  a  few  moments,  at  that  enemy. 

We  talk  much  of  Slavery,  and  think  we  understand  it ;  yet 
though  the  word  is  in  every  body's  mouth,  not  one  man  in  a 
thousand  reflects  what  it  really  is.  It  is  not  a  sectional  insti- 
tution now,  it  is  a  national  institution.  Within  a  few  years  it 
has  been  made  the  sin  of  the  nation,  by  the  combined  action 
of  the  three  great  departments  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment,—  the  National  Congress,  Executive,  and  Judiciary. 
President  Buchanan  claims  it  as  a  national  institution,  and 
coolly  wonders  how  any  body  ever  doubted  it.  The  Supreme 
Court  has  officiously  volunteered  its  decision  that  we,  citizens 
of  Massachusetts,  are  not  merely  connected  with  slaveholding 
States  by  the  Federal  Union,  but  we  are  citizens  of  a  slave- 
holding  nation.  I  am  not,  then,  speaking  to  you  of  the  sins 
of  Carolina  and  Mississippi,  but  as  an  American  citizen  I 
speak  of  the  sins  for  which  you  and  I  are  responsible,  and  for 
which  you  and  I  must  answer,  as  sure  as  there  is  a  God  in 
heaven.  I  shall  not  dress  the  subject  in  any  colors  of  rhet- 
oric ;  Slavery  is  seen  best  in  naked  ugliness.  Take  a  bare, 
diy  schedule  of  what  the  slave  code  demands  of  the  slave  and 
allows  the  master ;  of  what  it  must  demand  and  allow  in  order 
to  live  a  day. 

1.  Now  the  kernel  of  Slavery  is  in  three  words, — Prop- 
erty in  Man.  Admit  that  it  is  ever  right  for  one  man  to  own 
another,  and  all  the  barbarities  of  the  most  atrocious  slave 


Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


code  legitimately  follow^  Now,  if  you  own  a  thing  you  own 
all  there  is  of  it ;  and  if  you  own  a  man  you  own  all  there  is 
of  him, — you  own  his  body  and  his  soul,  his  blood,  bones, 
and  brain.  You  own  his  hand,  and  all  his  hand  can  make 
and  earn ;  you  own  his  head,  and  all  his  head  can  think ;  he 
has  no  right  to  think  but  for  you  ^  his  heart,  and  all  his  heart 
can  feel ;  he  has  no  right  to  feel  but  for  you.  If  you  take  a 
deed  of  a  lot  of  land,  you  take  therein  a  deed  of  all  the  &uit 
that  may  drop  on  it,  of  all  the  birds  that  may  fly  over  it, 
of  all  the  minerals  that  may  ever  be  found  under  it;  and 
if  you  can  legally  take,  a  deed  of  a  man,  all  that  man's 
rights  and  privileges  are  therein  deeded  to  you  and  your 
heirs  forever. 

2.  It  is,  of  course,  absurd  then  to  talk  about  a  slave's  prop- 
er iy  ;  the  law  cannot  allow  him  any.  It  is  true,  that  in  loose, 
careless  phrase,  we  talk  about  his  hoe  and  axe,  his  clothes, 
and  even  his  cabin  or  garden-patch,  just  as  we  talk  about  a 
horse's  blanket  and  stable.  It  is  the  owner's  blanket  on  the 
horse,  and  the  master's  clothes  on  the  back  of  the  slave.  The 
law  does  not  allow  the  slave  to  call  any  thing  his.  Yes, 
there  is  not  one  thing  on  all  the  earth  or  in  all  the  heaven  of 
which  the  slave  code  allows  him  to  say,    This  is  mine  I " 

3.  He  has  no  family ;  he  can  have  none.  It  is  as  absurd 
to  talk  about  ^  his  wife  and  children  "  as  "  his  cabin  dnd  gar* 
den."  He  may  live  with  a  woman  called  his  mfe,  but  the 
law  recognizes  no  such  relation  in  a  slave.  Whatever  rights 
he  may  have  had  as  a  husband  or  father  were  deeded  to  the 
master  with  the  bill  of  sale.  Tender  and  sympathizing  mas- 
ters there  are,  I  rejoice  to  own,  for  the  honor  of  human  nature, 
but  all  the  kindness  of  the  kindest  mastei*  cannot  make  a  slave 
a  husband.  The  law  makes  marriage  exactly  as  impossible 
to  him  as  to  a  horse.  A  slave  woman  does  not,  cannot  own 
her  children ;  they  belong  to  her  master.  She  has  no  right 
to  train  or  educate  them,  no  right  to  love  them,  they  are  her 
master's  (in  the  eye  of  the  law)  just  in  the  same  sense  that  his 

17* 


ig8  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


colts  and  calves  are  his.  They  are  his  stock ;  she  raises  stock 
for  her  master. 

4.  He  has  no  citizenship.  It  would  bB  strange  enough  for 
property  to  have  political  rights,  to  vote,  prosecute  and  defend 
itself  in  the  courts.  It  would  be  strange  enough  ^to  see  prop- 
erty prosecuting  its  owner  I  Hence  to  a  judge  and  jury  a 
slave  is  no  more  than  a  horse ;  he  can  no  more  appeal  to  the 
ballot  box  than  can  the  cattle.  And  all  this  must  be ;  let  it 
be  noted,  all  this  is  just  and  right,  if  it  is  ever  right  for  one 
man  to  own  another. 

5.  He  has  no  God.  You  start, but  it  is  true;  the  slave 
code  allows  the  slave  no  God  but  his  master.  He  must  wor- 
ship what  his  master  bids  him  worship  —  so  says  the  law  — 
God  or  idol,  or  no  God — if  the  master  so  command.  Duty 
is  what  the  master  bids  him  do  —  he  has  no  right  to  any 
conscience.  He  must  blaspheme  at  every  breath,  and  break 
every  command  of  law  or  Gospel  if  the  master  so  command ; 
so  says  the  slave  code.  And  this  too  must  be;  this  is  right, 
if  it  is  ever  right  for  man  to  own  man.  Men  who  dwell  in 
comfortable  homes,  amid  the  prattle  of  laughing  children, 
who  worship  weekly  on  elegant  cushions  and  carpets,  tell  us 
that  the  slave  ought  meekly  to  suffer,  and  obey  these  Jaws  till 
the  Lord's  time  of  deliverance  comes.*  Have  you  ever 
reflected  that  a  man  cannot  obey  these  laws  and  be  a  Chris- 
tian ?  If  not,  think  of  it  now.  Can  a  man  do  what  the 
slave  code  bids  him  do  and  be  a  Christian  ?  Now  mark  it, 
if  there  is  any  truth  in  this  Gospel,  obedience  to  the  slave 
code  secures  the  damnation  of  the  slave !  A  slave  must  dis- 
obey these  laws,  in  a  word,  be  rebellious,  in  heart  if  not  in 
deed,  to  save  his  souh  When  Uncle  Tom  is  commanded  to 
stop  praying  or  die — and  this  his  master  may  command,  for 
any  whim  at  any  moment  —  then  the  time  has  come  for 

*  Aj ;  and  ministers  Mtho  dweU  in  princely  mansions,  In  loving  fiunily  circles,  and 
'  snnonnded  by  hosts  of  admiring  friends,  and  who  \Teekly  preach  in  richly  carpeted 
pulpits,  with  sumptaooBly  cnshioned  eeats,  tool  See  Henry  Ward  Bcecher's  Sermon i 


Fales  Henry  NewhalL  199 


Uncle  Tom  to  choose  between  his  master  and  his  God;  to 
choose  his  master,  and  lose  his  soul,  or  choose  his  God,  and 
die.    But  this  is  not  all. 

6.  Where  there  is  property  in  man  there  must  be  markets 
for  human  stock ;  slave  auctions,  with  all  their  atrocious  and 
sickening  details,  cofi9es  and  chain  gangs,  stock  fanciers,  stock 
breeders,  with  ten  thousand  other  equally  disgusting  conse- 
quences,  which  my  tongue  would  refuse  to  speak  and  your 
refined  ears  refuse  to  hear.  Yet  it  is  silly  squeamishness  for 
any  man  or  woman  to  recoil  from  any  of  these  consequences 
who  believes  that  there  can  be  "  jtroperty  in  man.*' 

Finally.  It  would  be  inconsistent  for  a  code  of  laws  which 
recognizes  this  relation  not  to  arm  the  master  with  power  to 
enforce  his  claims.  Great  and  astonishing  as  are  these 
claims,  his  power  must  equal  them  or  he  cannot  be  a  master. 
Hence  the  master  must  crush  the  intellect  of  the  slave,  or 
.  cease  to  be  a  master.  Ignorance  must  be  enforced  by  statute, 
or  Slavery  will  cease.  Let  the  mental  faculties  be  quickened 
by  education,  and  how  long  would  a  man  remain  a  slave  ? 
To  teach  slaves  to  read  is  to  teach  them  their  manhood,  it 
is  to  teach  them  sedition  and  rebellion.  No  slave  could  be 
safely  trusted  with  the  Bible.  The  master  had  better  put 
loaded  revolvers  into  his  hand  than  ideas  into  his  head;  he 
had  better  turn  ^im  loose  and  bid  him  help  himself  in  the 
Springfield  arsenal  than  in  the  Cambridge  libraiy. 

For  a  man  who  has  no  rights  to  be  allowed  to  defend  him- 
self,  under  any  circumstances,  would  be  absurd  enough.  It 
is  right  for  a  man  to  whip  a  refractory  horse,  and  as  a  refrac- 
tory man  is  a  thousand  times  more  dangerous  animal,  his 
punishment  must  be  a  thousand  times  more  severe.  A  true 
man  will  not  yield  up  his  manhood,  a  true  woman  will  not 
surrender  her  womanhood,  without  a  terrible  conflict,  in  which 
blows  and  blood  may  be  but  trivial  incidents.  And  let  it  be 
remembered  that  any  caprice  of  passion,  or  the  merest  whim 
of  fancy  on  the  part  of  the  master,  is  to  be  absolute  law  to  the 


20O  Fales  Henry  NewhalL 


slave,  from  which  there  is  do  appeal  except  to  the  Almighty 
Judge,  at  the  Great  Assize.  If  the  claims  of  the  master  are 
just,  then  it  is  just  to  enforce  them  by  all  necessary  means 
and  instruments,  by  the  lash,  fetter,  and  fagot.  Scourging 
and  torture  are  not  abuses  of  Slavery,  they  are  inevitable,  if 
the  system  is  to  be  maintained.  If  necessary  to  maintain  his 
authority  ovex  the  slave,  the  master  may  whip,  torture,  kill 
him ;  hunt  him  through  the  swamps  with  rifles  and  blood* 
hounds,  and  offer  for  him  high  rewards,  dead  or  alive.  And 
all  this,  I  repeat  again,  is  inevitable,  all  this  is  just  and  right, 
if  it  is  righ  t  for  man  to  be  the  property  of  man. 

This  is  the  essence  of  American  Slavery ;  this  long  ehain 
of  abominations,  you  will  see  is  firmly  linked  and  locked 
together,  each  to  the  next,  and  all  to  the  first,  'propert.y  in 
man.  Have  I  shocked  and  disgusted  you  ?  Is  it  a  shame  to 
speak  of  ^Lese  things  in  this  decent  and  solemn  place  ?  Tell 
me,  then,  in  th&  name  of  the  liord,  what  is  it  for  a  great  , 
imtion  to  do  these  things,  to  strain  every  nerve  and  sinew  to 
perpetuate  them,  for  great  churches  to  defend  them  so  as  to 
fasten  this  curse  upon  the  African,  upon  his  seed,  and  upon 
his  seed's  seed  forevermore  ?  Had  all  Hell  sat  in  conclave' 
for  ages,  the  assembled  devils  could  not  have  devised  a  crime 
which  more  thoroughly  sucks  the  juice  out  of  all  other  crimes, 
which  in  a  more  thorough-going  and  workmanlike  manner 
breaks  all  the  commandments  of  God,  from  the  first  word  of 
the  law  to  the  last  word  of  the  Gospel.  This  is  the  institu- 
tion against  which  John  Brown  felt  it  his  duty  to  draw  the 
sword. 

I  have  said  that  there  was  a  mortal  conflict  between  this 
system  and  Christianity.  You  all  know  what  Christianity  is, 
for  you  all  have  read  the  New  Testament ;  and  therefore  I 
will  not  insult  your  common  sense  by  attempting  to  prove 
that  they  are  irreconcilably  hostile  to  each  other.  Doctors 
of  divinity  have  spent  their  strength  and  learning  to  prove 
that  the  Bible  endorses  American  Slavery,  but  such  divines 


Fales  Henry  Newhall.  201 


make  infidels  faster  than  an  army  of  Humes  and  Paines. 
For  if  you  will  prove  to  me  clear  as  these  sunbeams  that 
the  Bible  sanctions  this  crime,  that  moment  you  have  made 
the  Pible  worthless  to  me,  you  have  demonstrated  to'  me  that 
God  never  wrote  it,  that  it  bears  a  lie  on  its  title-page,  and 
reverence  for  my  Heavenly  Father  bids  me  throw  it  into  the 
furnace.  Sit  down  and  convince  me  that  God  approves 
Slavery  as  it  is  in  America  to-day,  and  when  you  have 
succeeded  you  have  made  me  an  atheist.  Where  Baal  or 
Moloch  were  gods,  Slavery  might  harmonize  with  the  nation- 
al religion ;  but  where  Jehovah  is  God,  Christ  the  Saviour, 
and  the  Bible  the  Revelation,  the  man  who  says  that  God 
approves  this  Crime  of  crimes  blasphemes  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost. 

I  have  called  this  a  national  institution.  As  our  distin- 
guished Senator  (whom  God  preserve)  has  so  ably  shown, 
Avhen  our  national  flag  was  first  flung  to  the  breeze,  it  did 
not,  on  the  national  domain,  float  above  a  single  slave.  Now 
wherever  it  floats  it  protects  and  defends  the  abomination. 
Then  it  was  protected  by  certain  States,  but  nowhere  by  the 
nation  r  now  the  national  aegis  shelters  it  every  where.  First, 
all  for  Freedom,  now  all  for  Slavery.  The  American  Gov- 
ernment to-day,  is  a  mere  instrument  of  the  Slave  power.  It 
has  coiled  its  slimy  folds  round  the  American  Church.  It 
sits  in  the  Tract  House  at  New  York,  and  corrects  proof- 
.  sheets  for  the  American  Tract  Society.  It  runs  its  eye  over 
Harris's  Mammon,  detects  an  allusion  to  Slavery^  and  the 
sentence  is  struck  out  in  a  moment.  The  memoir  of  a  sweet 
Scott' jh  girl  alludes  to  the  beautiful  and  touching  fact  that 
she  "-"as  accustomed  to  pray  in  secret  for  the  slave,  and  the 
line  is  blotted  that  tells  the  tale.  The  great  Methodist 
Church  began  by  declaring  Slavery  "the  sum  of  all  villa- 
nies."  But  soon  the  leprosy  began  to  appear  among  its  mem- 
bership, spread  among  the  clergy,  and  at  last,  lo !  a  leprous 
spot  on  the  face  of  a  bishop,  and  then  the  Church  recoiled. 


202  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


In  solemn  conference  assembled,  the  Church  gathered  around 
him,  looked  on  the  sign  of  thp  plague,  and  mildly  apprised 
him,  in  cautious,  dainty  phrase,  that  until  rid  of  his  "  impedi- 
ment," he  would  not  be  acceptable  as  a  presiding  officer. 
The  Slave  Power  caught  the  words,  rose  in  wrath,  laid  its 
talons  on  the  Methodist  Church,  and  broke  it  in  twain.  And 
all  this  is  consistent  with  its  very  genius.  In  order  to  live  it 
must  be  as  unscrupulous  as  Satan  himself,  relentless  as  fate, 
cruel  as  the  grave.  Eadnapping  in  Africa  or  America,  Kan- 
sas outrages,  Lecompton  messages,  Sumner  assaults,  Dred 
Scott  decisions,  —  all  these  things  are  necessary  to  the  very 
existence  of  Slavery. 

And  be  it  remembered  that  in  still  another  sense  it  is 
a  national  institution.  The  whole  nation  has  shared  its 
profits.  Northern  avarice  and  covetousness  are  interested  in 
its  perpetuation.  Northern  merchants  and  capitalists  have 
too  often  taken  the  lion's  share  of  these  wages  of  sin,  this 
price  of  blood.  Slavery  is  loved  in  Boston  as  well  as  in 
Savannah,  in  New  York  as  well  as  in  New  Orleans ;  it  has 
strong  fortresses  in  State  Street  and  in  "Wall  Street.  The 
nation  has  stuffed  cotton  into  its  ears,  and  refused  to  hear 
the  clank  of  the  fetters,  the  long  agonizing  wail  of  breaking 
hearts. 

And  now,  —  these  words  may  sound  awful  in  your  ears, 
but  they  come  from  my  heart, — if  God  had  sent  plague, 
cholera,  famine  upon  those  cities  whose  wealth  has  been 
coined  from  the  sinews  of  the  slave,  we  could  but  bow  in 
meekness  and  say,  "It  is  just."  Had  God  made  the  grass 
to  grow  in  State  Street ;  had  he  made  the  wharves  and  ware- 
houses to  rot  that  have  been  piled  with  the  products  of  un- 
requited toil;  had  he  levelled  the  granite  piles  which  our 
merchant  princes  have  built,  and  filled  up  with  the  ruins  that 
harbor  where  once  the  accursed  Acorn  lay;  had  he  made 
those  pavement  stones  slippery  with  blood  over  which  An- 
thony Boras  was  marched  back  to  servitude,  we  could  bat 


Fales  Henry  Newhall.  203 


say,  ^0  Grod!  this  is  dreadful,  but  thou  art  just!  The  cup 
of  trembling  which  we  and  our  fathers  mingled  for  others,  is 
it  not  pressed  to  our  own  lips?''  So, is  that  panic  dreadful 
in  which  the  whole  South  palpitates  to-daj.  I  have  no  dis- 
position to  jest  and  sneer  at  it  as  do  many.  It  is  ridiculous 
to  us,  but  fearfully  real  to  them.  Virginia  mothers  clasp 
their  babes  to  their  bosoms  with  shrieks  of  terror  at  the 
sound  of  an  unexpected  footfall  by  night;  every  meteor  is  a 
battle  signal;  the  mountains  and  forests  are  peopled  with 
phantom  warriors ;  they  see  the  rod  of  the  destroyer  trem- 
bling on  high ;  they  see  the  fingers  of  a  man's  band  writing 
MENE,  UENE,  on  the  wall  of  their  banquet  chamber.  God 
forbid  that  I  should  deride  their  terrors.  But  are  the  tears 
of  that  planter's  wife  any  more  precious  in  the  sight  of  God 
than  the  tears  of  that  slave  woman  who  sinks  under  the  over- 
seer's lash  close  by  ?  What  though  the  first  bom  should  fall 
slain  on  every  hearth  that  has  been  laid  in  the  blood  of  the 
slave,  and  from  every  one  of  those  homes  there  should  go  up 
one  morning  a  great  and  bitter  cry  like  that  of  old,  would  it 
stir  any  deeper  sympathy  on  high  than  that  which  ho/i  been 
rising  unheeded  through  all  these  years,  from  plantation, 
swamp,  and  cabin?  For  years  and  generations  God  has 
been  bottling  these  tears,  and  if  he  returns  them  to  us  in 
showers  of  blood,  who  will  dare  to  murmur  at  his; justice  ? 
The  tears  and  the  blood  of  the  strong  and  of  the  weak,  of 
the  white  and  of  the  black,  are  alike  to  Him  "who  hath 
made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men." 

In  my  mind  the  question  whether  John  Brown  did  right  in 
drawing  the  sword  in  Kansas  is  included  in  that  other  ques- 
tion,—  Is  it  ever  right  to  fight  ?  Admit  that  it  can  ever  be 
justifiable  to  draw  the  sword,  and  it  will  be  hard  to  prove 
that  John  Brown  did  wrong. 

E^nsas  was  thrown  into  a  state  of  civil  war  through  the 
disgraceful  imbecility  of  the  National  Government,  and  its 
shameful  subserviency  to  the  slave  power.   The  peaceful  set- 


204  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


tiers  could  get  no  protection  from  the  nation  against  reckless 
marauders,  who  burned  their  homes,  sacked  their  towns,  de- 
stroyed property  and  life.  They  were  forced  to  fight  or  fly ; 
Brown  chose  to  fight  for  his  sons  and  his  property.  He  was 
right,  if  it  is  ever  right  to  draw  the  sword.  Kansas  looks 
upon  him  as  a  deliverer. 

At  Harper's  Ferry  he  tells  us  his  purpose  was  simply  to 
liberate  slaves  on  a  large  scale.  This  we  are  bound  to 
believe,  for  all  know  that  John  Brown  was  too  brave  a  tnan 
to  lie.  Had  there  been  a  reasonable  prospect  of  success,  his 
attempt  would  have  been  right;  but  he  certainly  expected 
success,  and,  therefore,  to  him  it  was  right,  though  as  we 
see  the  odds  against  such  an  attempt,  it  would  be  wrong 
for  you  and  me.  Success  would  have  made  his  "monoma- 
nia "  and  "  fanaticism  "  Napoleonic  strategy. 

He  defends  himself  better  than  I  or  any  other  man  can 
defend  him.  He  calmly  tells  the  jury  who  convicted  him, 
that  had  he  done  for  them,  their  wives  and  children,  what  he 
did  for  "  God's  despised  poor,"  it  would  have  been  all  right. 
This  defence  is  impregnable.  Had  John  Brown  done  pre- 
cisely the  same  act  to  save  the  white  man  from  the  tyranny 
of  the  black  man,  successful  or  unsuccessful,  the  deed  would 
have  been  sung  and  celebrated  as  heroic  with  the  deeds  of 
Hampden  and  Warren.  Had  he  been  a  black  man  fighting 
for  his  own  race,  some  say,  it  would  have  been  right.  But 
John  Brown  believed  the  Bible,  which  makes  no  distinction 
of  races,  and  declares  that  God  "  hath  made  of  one  blood  all 
naJions  of  men." 

But  was  he  not  a  rebel,  guilty  of  sedition  and  treason? 
Yes,  all  this.  But  we  are  to  remember  that  the  words 
"  rebel "  and  "  treason  "  have  been  made  holy  in  the  Amer- 
ican language.  Are  not  our  children  fed  on  revolutionary 
reminiscences  which  make  "  rebel "  and  "  patriot "  synony- 
mous in  their  childish  apprehension  ?  What  means  that  stone 
and  that  tablet  at  Lexington,  that  inscription  which  patriots 


Faies  Henry  Newhall.  203: 


come  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to  read,  commencing, 
"  Sacred  to  liberty  and  the  Rights  of  Mankind!  "  It  means 
that  eight  Massachusetts  rebels  dashed  themselves  against  an 
empire  on  that  village  green,  and  that  Massachusetts  is  proud 
of  their  very  ashes.  What  means  that  monumental  bronze 
on  Court  Square  ?  It  means  that  we  glory  in  the  treason  of 
that  arch  rebel  Benjamin  Franklin,  "  who  snatched  the  light- 
ning from  heaven  and  the  sceptre  from  tyrants."  What  mean 
those'  massive  granite  blocks  that  are  piled*  on  Bunker  Hill  ? 
It  means  that  we  glory  in  the  deed  of  those  rebels  who  knelt 
in  a  trench  there  one  June  morning,  under  the  glare  of  burn- 
ing Charlestown,  to  salute  with  powder  and  bullets  the  soldiers 
of  their  "  rightful  sovereign,"  and  waited,  the  fowling  piece  to 
the  shoulder  and  the  finger  on  the  trigger,  till  they  could  see 
the  whites  of  their  eyes !  I  do  *ot  say  that  Massachusetts 
has  any  right  to  glory  in  those  deeds  as  she  does,  but  I  do 
say  that  she  has  no  right  to  glory  in  the  treason  of  Hancock, 
Adams,  and  Franklin,  as  noble  and  Christian,  and  then  brand 
the  treason  of  John  Brown  as  infamous.  Yea,  is  not  his  deed 
nobler  than  the  deed  of  him  whom  you,  citizens  of  Roxbury, 
are  so  proud  to  call  an  ancestor,  as  you  exultingly  tell  the 
stranger  that  here  the  hero  AVarren  was  born,  and  on  this 
street,  close  by  this  sanctuary,  he  first  drew  the  breath  of 
life  ?  Which  is  nobler,  more  Christian,  to  strike  a  blow  for 
myself  or  for  others  oppressed?  Posterity  will  marvel  at 
the  heathenism  of  Christian  America,  the  children  will  be 
ashamed  of  the  heathemsra  of  their  fathers,  which  gave  War- 
ren a  statue  and  John  Brown  a  gibbet.  Brown,  fighting  for 
the  negro  against  the  white  man,  is  precisely  parallel  with 
Byron  *  fighting  for  the  Greeks  against  the  Turks,  with  Kos- 
ciusko and  Lafayette  fighting  with  our  fathers  against  the 
British.  His  deeds  take  rank  with  theirs  in  self-devotion  and 
heroism ;  history  will  write  their  names  on  the  same  page; 

*  Better  Btill,  to  say  Dr.  Howe,  of  Boston,  an  American,  whom  all  America  applaud- 
ea  for  the  deed,  J.  K« 

18 


2o6  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 

poetry  will  weave  tbem  id  the  same  garland.  Brown  made 
mistakes, — he  saw  them  himself  when  too  late,  —  great, 
grave  mistakes,  but  thej  were  mistakes  of  the  head,  not  of 
the  heart.*  His  Jieart  was  true  to  God  and  man  through  all. 
And,  therefore,  I  rejoice  to  believe  tliat  between  eleven  and 
twelve  o'clock  last  Friday  forenoon  he  heard  from  the  Judge 
of  all  flesh  the  words, "  Well  done  1  good  and  faithful  servant." 

I  would  now  say  something  of  John  Brown's  character  as  a 
man  and  as  a  Christian ;  for  it  is  in  the  light  of  that  charac- 
ter  that  wc  see  the  mortal  conflict  of  which  I  have  spoken 
between  Christianity  and  American  Slavery.  The  broad 
blaze  of  that  character,  lustrous  in  the  glory  of  Christianity, 
suddenly  falls  upon  this  abomination,  draws  thither  the  gaze 
of  all  the  world,^and  at  a  flash  reveals  every  horrid  limb  and 
feature,  from  the  foot  planted  in  the  depths  of  hell,  to  the  head 
that  "  dares  affront  the  throne  of  Grod.''  This  grim,  grisly 
Moloch  had  Iain  in  the  dark,  wallowing  in  the  blood  of  his 
victims ;  John  Brown  passes  by,  and  his  character  falls  on 
the  monster  in  a  flash  of  radiance,  and  at  the  same  instant 
the  whole  panic>stricken  South,  in  its  spasm  of  terror,  unwit- 
tingly shouts  to  the  world,  «  Look  there  I  behold  our  God ! " 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  attempt  to  delineate  his  charac- 
ter at  length — you  all  know  it,  for  it  is  transparent.  A  few 
months  ago  most  of  us  thought  of  him  as  a  bold,  rough,  reck- 
less outlaw,  imbittered  by  the  loss  of  his  property,  and  the 
loss  of  his  sons  in  Kansas.  Had  he  been  shot  down  in  the 
engine-house  at  Harper's  Ferry,  that  would  have  been  our 
mental  daguerreotype  of  old  Osawatomie.  But  God  did  not 
allow  that  cowardly  United  States  lieutenant,  who  could  smite 
a  man  disarmed  and  prostrate,  to  take  his  life ;  he  would  first 
show  his  face  to  the  land  and  to  the  world.  And  all  who  have 

*  That  is  to  eay,  in  not  regarding  every  white  Virginian  as  an  enemy,  for  irhom  no 
qmipatliy  was  to  be  felt.  He  shonld  not  have  "  regarded  the  feelings  of  their  fami- 
lies" when  he  arrested  his  prisoners;  he  shonld  only  have  remembered  their  crimes 
against  humanity.  Had  he  done  so  he  would  have  beon  living  and  a  conqueror  to- 
day. It  is  a  mistake  that  is  not  likely  to  be  made  again.  J.B. 


Fales  Henry  Newhall.  207 


looked  on  that  face,  friend  or  foe,  have  looked  with  awe  and 
admiration.  How  strange!  how  sublime  is  John  Brown's 
victory  at  Harper's  Ferry  I  He  conquered  all  that  looked 
upon  his  face*  How  all  around  dwarfed  into  insignificance 
in  the  presence  of  that  old  wounded  prisoner,-  doomed  to  a 
felon's  death  I  What  man  in  a  million  could  have  won  such 
a  victory  ?  He  stood  like  a  bom  prince  among  them ;  every  ' 
word,  look,  and  gesture  showed  him  to  be  of  the  royal  line. 
He  seemed  predestinated  for  the  spot  by  education,  associa* 
tions,  and  ancestry,  —  foreordained  for  the  hour. 

There  is  in  his  character  such  a  beautiful  simplicity,  that 
every  word  and  act  opens  a  window  in  his  bosom  through 
which  you  see  the  man  to  the  very  core.  Inflexible  purpose 
and  Spartan  courage  were  written  on  every  lineament  of  his 
fece,  while  yet  a  childlike  artlessness  played  over  every  fea- 
ture, and  lofty  Christian  faith  blended  with  the  lightning  de' 
cision  that  flashed  from  his  eye.  He  was  of  the  old  Puritan 
stock ;  his  fifth  ancestor  was  Peter  Brown,  of  the  Mayflower 
and  of  Plymouth  Bock.  The  spirit  of  Dunbar  and  Naseby 
had  come  throbbing  through  these  ancestors  to  his  soul.  His 
grandfather  *  was  a  captain  in  the  Revolution,  and  he  himself, 
when  a  boy,  stood  by  his  father  to  witness  General  Hull's 
surrender.  Thus  did  he  draw  in  with  his  mother's  milk  the 
love  of  Freedom  and  the  fear  of  God.  His  soul  was  steeped 
in  revolutionary  memories,  and  his  childish  imagination  wa9 
peopled  with  the  martyrs  of  religion,  and  the  martyrs  of  free- 
dom, side  by  side.  As  Hannibal,  when  a  child,  swore  upont 
the  altar  eteinal  hatred  to  Rome,  his  country's  enemy,  so  h% 
in  his  very  childhood,  vowed  to  hate  and  fight  through  life 
his  country's  fiercest  mortal  foe — American  Slavery*  Early 
in  life  he  learned  to  fear  and  love  the  God  of  his  fathers  ;  sol»» 
emnly  devoted  his  head,  heart,  and  hand  to  God,  and  took 
upon  himself  the  holy  vows  of  the  Christian  life  and  the  Chris- 

*  His  grandCithera  and  grand  nnde  all  officers  in  the  Bevolationaiy  straggle. 

J.B. 


2o8  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


tian  church.  Through  all  his  life  those  who  most  intimately 
knew  him  declare  that  he  maintained  his  Christian  profession 
unwavering.  The  old  English  Bible  was  ever  his  dearest 
book;  his  memory  was  filled  with  its  passages;  his  speech 
and  letters  were  studded  with  its  phrases;  his  heart  was 
a-glow  with  its  spirit.  Morning  and  evening,  as  regularly  as 
the  morning  and  evening  meals,  the  great  family  Bible  was 
opened,  God's  goodness  was  praised,  and  his  presence  im- 
plored that  that  house  and  those  hearts  might  be  his  dwelling- 
place. 

And  with  this  ancestry,  this  early  training,  this  education, 
and  this  religion,  every  word  that  fell  from  his  lips  on  the  ear 
of  the  American  public,  from  the  hour  he  was  taken  up  from 
the  blood-stained  floor  and  laid  on  the  grass  in  front  of  the 
engine-house,  to  the  hour  on  the  scaffold,  —  with  all  this  I 
say,  every  word  from  that  moment  to  the  last  was  perfectly 
consistent.  His  letters,  his  conversation  with  friend  and  foe, 
his  brief,  sublime  appeal  to  the  moral  consciousness  of  judge 
and  jury  in  the  presence  of  death,  all  breathe  the  same  art- 
less simplicity,  the  same  adamantine  firmness,  the  same  un- 
fMnching  courage,  the  same  lofly  Christian  faith.  He  shows 
the  hero  and  Christian  from  first  to  last,  as  easily  and  natu- 
rally as  he  draws  his  breath. 

He  tells  us  that  his  first  Sabbath  in  prison  was  the  "  sweet' 
est,  most  blessed  Sabbath  of  all  his  life  !  "  Think  of  it !  old, 
wounded,  death  by  the  gallows  inevitable,  infuriated  enemies 
glaring  on  him  through  the  single  grated  window ;  yet  there 
reclines  the  old  man,  calmly  reading  his  Bible,  and  enjoying 
the  "sweetest,  most  blessed  Sabbath  of  all  his  life."  "My 
soul  is  among  lions,"  writes  the  old  man,  "  but  it  rejoices  in 
the  Lord."  When  a  lady  visitor  in  his  cell  alluded,  with  a 
woman's  delicacy  and  tenderness,  to  his  ignominious  sentence, 
the  old  hero  and  martyr  quietly  replies,  in  immortal  words,  "/ 
do  not  think  lean  better  serve  the  cause  I  love  so  much  than  to 
die  for  it"    She  then  sympathized  with  his  wounds  and  his 


Fales  Henry  Newhall.  209 


weakness,  lamented  the  tediousness  of  hig  forced  inactivity, 
and  remarked  how  trying  it  must  be  for  so  active  a  man,  with 
such  great  designs  in  his  heart,  to  lie  on  his  back  in  a  prison, 
and  asked  if  he  had  no  fears  that  through  this  weakness  he 
might  waver  in  his  faith.  He  calmly  replied,  with  Christian 
modesty,  "  I  cannot  tell  what  weakness  may  come  over  me,  hut 
I  do  not  think  thai  I  shaU  dmy  my  Lord  and  Master  Jesus 
Christ,  as  1  certainly  should,  if  I  denied  my  principles  against 
Slavery"  Yet  there  is  no  parade  of  bravery,  no  ostentation 
whatever.  He  comes  forth  from  the  close,  dark  prison,  and 
his  eye  once  more,  and  for  the  last  time,  glances  over  earth 
and  sky,  and  he  remarks  on  the  beauty  of  the  scenery  while 
riding  on  his  coffin  to  the  gallows  I  He  recognizes  acquaint- 
ances about  him,  and  bids  them  a  cheerful  "  Good  morning," 
as  he  passes  on.  He  looks  around  with  soldier-like  approval, 
upon  the  trained  movements  of  the  military,  and  with  a  sol- 
dier's ear  enjoys  their  measured  tread.  He  is  the  first  to 
mount  the  scaffold,  and,  rock  to  the  last,  sternly  declines  to 
listen  to  the  prayers  of  a  slaveholding  ministry.  As  he  stands 
there,  he  wears  the  halter  on  his  neck  like  a  garland  of  glory. 
And  when  at  last  the  drop  fell,  and  he  hung  between  the 
heavens  and  earth,  he  made  the  gallows  glorious  in  America. 
Yes,  henceforth  it  is  no  disgrace  to  die  on  a  gibbet  in  this 
land.  As  the  Holy  One,  whose  steps  he  followed,  and  Avho 
died  for  others  the  death  of  a  slave,  made  the  barbarous  cross 
a  glorious  thing  from  the  moment  his  hand  was  nailed  to  its 
rugged  wood,  so  this,  his  worshipper  and  follower,  when  he 
gave  his  life  cheerfully  there  for  the  millions  of  God's 
despised  poor  in  this  land,  consecrated  the  gibbet  on  this 
American  soil.  All  the  world  gazes  on  that  body,  as  it 
swings  lifeless  on  the  gallows  tree,  and  asks,  "  Who  hangs 
there  ? "  The  answer  comes  from  a  whole  race,  out  of  the 
millions  of  their  tropic  hearts,  "  It  is  the  man  who  loved  us 
enough  to  die  for  us."  The  answer  rolls  from  land  to  land, 
*'It  is  a  son  of  the  Pilgrims,  a  son  of  the  Revolutionary  pat- 
18* 


210  Fales  Henry  Newhall. 


riots,  and  a  son  whom  friend  and  foe  will  say  was  worthy  of 
his  sires."  It  is'a  tender  father,  a  devoted  husband,  a  heroic 
Christian  patriot,  a  man  who  loved  his  despised  fellow-man 
so  deeply  that  he  could  cheerfully  die  for  him ;  it  is  a  man 
who  loved  his  God  with  such  devoted  love,  and  trusted  his 
Grod  with  such  lofty  faith,  that  men  called  him  a  maniac 
"What!"  cries  the  world  in  amazement,  "is  it  for  such  a 
man  that  the  gallows  stands  in  /merica?  Are  such  men 
hung  on  the  gibbet  there?  Who,  then,  do  the  Americans 
think  fit  to  live?  How  is  it  that  a  man  must  die  on  the 
gibbet  there  who  is  acknowledged  by  his  fiercest  foes  to  be  a 
hero  and  a  Christian  ?  "  And  one  answer  rolls  round  the 
world,  "  He  dies  because  American  Slavery  demands  it.  He, 
and  such  as  he  must  die  for  Slavery  to  live."  And  then  our 
nation  asks,  is  asking  to-day,  •—  this  John  Brown's  first  Sab- 
bath in  heaven,—"  Which  is  worth  the  most  to  us,  Slavery  or 
a  man,  a  hero,  a  Christian,  like  Brown  of  Osawatomie  ? " 
That  question  is  asked  in  millions  of  homes  to-day ;  it  is  pon- 
dered in  the  minds  of  statesmen,  it  is  burning  in  myriads  of 
Christian  hearts  this  Sabbath  morning,  and  mark  it,  when 
that  question  is  fairly  asked  through  all  the  land,  it  is  an- 
swered in  a  thunder  roll  from  Atlantic  to  Pacific,  from  Lake 
to  Gulf,  and  Slavery  is  doomed.  Last  Friday  morning, 
when  John  Brown  was  swung  from  the  gallows,  American 
Slavery  felt  that  pinioned  hand  strike  a  blow  to  its  very 
heart ;  it  trembled  with  a  horror  it  never  felt  before.  Had 
not  God  smitten  the  slaveholders  with  judicial  blindness,  they 
would  have  built  John  Brown  a  palace,  clothed  him  in  fine 
linen,  and  fed  him  sumptuously  every  day,  rather  than  ever 
have  allowed  him  to  mount  that  scaffold.  He  was  content  to 
"  die  with  the  Philistines,"  when  he  could  slay  more  of  them 
at  his  death  than  in  all  his  life. 

True,  he  had  laid  them  heaps  upon  heaps.  He  had  driven 
them  before  him  like  frightened  sheep,  from  border  to  border, 
over  the  plains  of  Kansas.    But  be  made  a  mistake,  —  for  an 


Fales  Henry  Newhall.  211 


instant,  a  fatal  instant,  faith  changed  to  presumption ;  for  a 
moment  that  keen,  wakeful  eye  slumbered,  and  they  stole 
behind  him  and  sheared  his  locks.  And  then  they  clutched 
him,  and  looked  into  the  eye,  whose  glance  had  scattered  their 
a  thousand  times,  and  cried,  "  Ha !  it  is  he !  it  is  Samson  of 
Osavvatomie!  Praised  be  Baal!  Glory  to  DagonI"  and 
they  bound  him  and  led  him  away.  They  shouted  through 
Gath  and  Ascalon,  "  We  have  caught  the  terrible  Samson ! " 
and  they  shut  him  in  their  prison,  and  peered  at  him  at  a  safe 
distance  down  through  the  grated  window,  and  rubbed  their 
hands  in  glee  as  they  said  to  one  another,  It  is  he !  the  old 
Samson  of  Osawatomie,  caged  at  last."  But  O,  how  the  old 
hero's  locks  grew  in  that  dusky  prison  air !  Every  moment 
they  kept  him  there,  the  strength  of  a  thousand  Samsons  was 
gathering  in  his  thews  and  sinews.  The  cowards  saw  it  and 
trembled ;  they  feared  him  in  that  prison  more  than  an  army 
with  banners.  And  so  they  hurried  him  forth  to  die ;  but  in 
the  blindness  of  their  fear  and  passion  they  did  not  see  that 
when  they  placed  him  on  the  scaffold,  they  had  set  him  be- 
tween the  very  pillars  of  their  idol's  temple.  And  he  looked 
up  and  prayed,  "Avenge  me  now  for  my  two  eyes."  He 
threw  his  arms  around  those  pillars  and  bowed  himself.  "  Let 
me  die  with  the  Philistines,"  cried  Samson  of  Osawatomie. 
Ah !  see  the  vast  fabric  totter !  hear  the  Philistines  shriek ! 
To-day  they  are  dropping  over  all  the  land,  the  first  falling 
fragments  from  the  great  crash  of  American  Slavery. 


"  The  practical  matter  of  hanging  four  men  who  exposed  themRcIves  in  con- 
flict with  a  national  crime,  makes  this  day  forever  memorable,  and  raises  some 
•  elementary  questions  in  morals  that  are  not  likely  to  subside  till  they  get  set- 
tled quite  differently  IVom  the  fashionable  logic  of  Congress  and  the  newspa- 
pers. "  John  Brown  was  a  felon,"  says  the  slaveholder.  "  Nobody  justifles 
Brown,"  says  your  dignified  and  astute  statesman.  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir,  I 
BO.  So  do  you.  So  does  every  man,  when  out  of  the  fog.  No  man  standing 
in  the  dear  sky  of  common  sense,  decides  the  right  or  wrong  of  such  an  act  as 
Brown's  by  counting  the  actors  on  the  two  sides.  Not  till  politics  have  made 
a  fool  of  you,  do  yon  begin  to  think  that  multiplying  the  perpetrator  of  a  self- 
evident  crime  by  ten  or  twenty  millions,  while  you  leave  its  zealous  opponent 
still  a  nnit,  you  have  transferred  the  crime  to  the  latter.  No,  sir,  and  for- 
ever, NO. 

"  Look  here  my  Hon.  Proxy  for  compiling  Statute  Books.  If  a  man  with 
wit  and  limbs,  but  too  lazy  or  too  mean  to  work  out  his  own  honest  living, 
sipproprlates  to  himself  the  fmits  of  another  man's  toil,  he  is  a  criminal,  isn't 
be,  whether  you  have  described  his  crime  in  your  statute  book  or  not  ?  Very 
well.  Ton  describe  it,  and  send  a  sheriff.  He  is  too  much  for  the  sheriff, 
and  knocks  him  down.  la  he  less  a  criminal  for  that  ?  You  send  a  judge.  He 
bribes  that  dignitary.  Ton  send  a  parson.  He  gags  him  with  bread  and 
cheese.  You  send  lawyers,  and  for  a  pinch  of  snuff  they  swear  bis  blackness  is 
all  white.  He  laughs  the  very  idea  of  punishment  to  scorn.  Has  he  become 
less  a  criminal  by  all  that?  By  and  by  he  allures  somebody  into  a  partner- 
ship of  his  iniquity.  Nobody  interferes  to  enforce  the  law,  and  the  letter 
thereof  dies  and  is  buried. 

«  Sialtiplied  criminals  walk  abroad,  and,  finding  it  too  tedions  to  appropri- 
ate products,  appropriate  the  producers.  Those  that  resist,  they  kill ;  adding 
murder  to  robbery,  ad  libitum ;  and  for  the  convenience  of  doing  so,  write 
statutes  to  that  effect.  Nobody  rebels.  Is  the  crime  growing  less,  O  sapient 
legislator  i  Law,  so  called,  is  exactly  bottom  side  up  as  to  this  now  immense 
partnership  of  criminals.  Is  the  moral  nature  of  their  conduct  changed  by  that 
fact  i  They  have  died  and  left  their  crime  to  their  children  and  their  children's 
children,  garnished  with  piety  and  polite  literature.  Has  it  therefore  become 
righteous  per  se  1  Out  of  millions  who  do  not  think  it  righteous,  there  is  not 
one  who  will  risk  his  life  to  rescue  one  of  its  victims. 

"  Does  It  follow  that  it  is  criminal  to  rescue  one  of  its  victims  ?  I  say  it  is 
the  holiest  thing  a  man  can  do  — and  as  sure  as  there  is  a  hereafter  it  is  the 
sanast,  provided  he  has  any  talent  for  it.  I  think  Brown,  and  his  followers 
who  are  to  be  so  coolly  murdered  to-day,  had  remarkable  talent  for  it.  They, 
at  the  cost  of  entering  heaven  some  years  earlier,  placed  themselves  on  the 
side  of  law,  order,  and  honesty,  which  other  men  stand  for  only  so  far  as  hap- 
pens to  be  convenient.  I  think  they  deserve  to  be  Imitated  by  all  the  moral  and 
physical  force  in  the  world,  till  man-atealers  are  not  considered  more  sacred 
than  pickpockets." 

Dec.  16, 1859. 


Sermon  by  Rev.  George  B.  Cheever,  D.  D: 


NEARLY  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  in  the  end 
of  tWs  present  stormy  winter  month,  a  little  frail  ves- 
sel was  tossing  on  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic  near  the  New 
England  coast.  In  the  cabin  of  that  vessel,  before  she 
touched  the  land,  a  great  covenant  of  principle  was  transacted, 
which  grew  out  of  their  church  covenant,  "  As  the  Lord's  free 
people,  to  walk  in  all  his  ways,  made  known,  or  to  be  made 
known  to  them,  according  to  their  best  endeavors,  whatever 
IT  MIGHT  COST  THEM."  They  formed  themselves,  by  the 
icompact  in  that  cabin,  into  a  body  politic,  "  to  enact,  consti- 
tute, and  frame  such  just  and  equal  laws  as  should  be  thought 
most  meet  and  convenient  for  the  general  good,"  promising 
all  due  submission  and  obedience  thereto ;  — just  and  equal 
laws,  the  foundation  of  whose  authority,  and  the  determina- 
tion of  their  justice,  was  the  Word  of  God ;  and  due  submis- 
sion and  obedience,  that  i§s,  just  so  far,  and  so  far  only,  as 
(Grod's  Word  and  their  own  consciences,  under  its  teaching, 
would  permit  them  to  render.  Out  of  the  righteous  disube- 
dience  of  unrighteous  law  grew  that  constitution  of  a  right- 
eous liberty. 

•  £nUUed,  "The  Martyr's  Death  ausI  The  Martyr's  Triumph,"  delivered  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Martyrdom  of  John  Brown,  before  the  Moloch  of  American  Slavery, 
on  December  4, 1859,  from  Matt,     27,  28. 

"What I  toll  yon  In  darkness,  that  speak  ye  in  light,  and  what  ye  hear  in  the 
ear,  that  preach  ye  on  the  housetops;  and  fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  but 
are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul;  but  rather  fear  Him  who  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul 
and  body  in  hell." 


214 


George  B.  Cheever. 


One  of  the  few  men  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower  who 
took  upon  themselves  that  covenant,  and  in  so  doing  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  state  of  freedom  among  men  by  allegiance  to 
God,  was  named  Peter  Brown.  It  is  now  nearly  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  since  that  signature,  and  what  amazing 
changes  have  passed  upon  the  world !  This  "Western  conti- 
nent filled  with  more  millions  than  in  that  little  company 
there  were  men ;  but  millions  so  diverse  in  character  from 
theirs,  so  little  consecrated  and  instructed  by  their  example, 
so  disobedient,  indeed,  to  the  supreme  Divine  law,  to  which 
they  promised  a  sole  eternal  loyalty,  that  in  the  middle  of 
this  third  century  after  the  Mayflower  landed,  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  Peter  Brown  rises  up,  and  is  publicly  hanged 
for  carrying  into  effect  the  principles  of  that  Majrflower 
compact,  that  covenant  of  obedience  to  just  and  equal  laws, 
obedience  to  God  and  his  Word  as  supreme,  and  disobedi- 
ence to  man's  authority,  if  requiring  aught  that  God  has  in 
his  law  forbidden. 

For  this  is  the  very  issue  on  which  this  Christian  hero, 
this  remarkable  man,  has  ventured  his  life  and  suffered.  It 
is  as  plain  as  day.  It  cannot  be  denied.  It  is  the  iniquity 
of  Slavery,  in  law  and  in  practice,  —  a  sin  against  God  and 
man,  —  in  opposition  and  defiance  of  which,  John  Brown, 
trusting  in  God,  —  obeying  God  rather  than  man, — gathered 
up  his  strength,  his  life,  and  threw  himself,  in  behalf  of  the 
enslaved,  and  against  the  enslaving  government  and  law,  even 
unto  death.  Two  great  passages  in  God's  Word  shone  before 
him  like  a  star,  occupied  his  being  like  presiding  angels,  like 
flames  of  fire,  like  a  chariot  of  flame,  in  which,  at  length,  his 
whole  nature  having  been  occupied  with  their  fulfilment,  he 
ascended  from  the  scaffold  to  the  great  cloud  of  witnesses. 
One  of  these  passages  was  from  the  New  Testament,  "Ee- 
member  them  that  are  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them."  The 
other  from  the  Old,  "  If  thou  forbear  to  deliver  them  that  are 
drawa  unto  death,  and  those  that  are  ready  to  be  slain ;  if 


George  B.  Cheever. 


215 


thou  sayest,  Behold  we  knew  it  not ;  doth  not  He  that  ponder- 
eth  the  heart  consider  it,  and  He  that  keepeth  thy  soul,  doth 
not  He  know  it  ?  and  shall  not  He  render  to  every  man 
according  to  his  works?  " 

Between  these  grand  outstanding  testimonies  of  God's  will 
and  man's  duty,  there  rose,  attendant  upon  John  Brown's 
conscience,  and  deepening  the  impression,  a  hundred  other 
angelic  witnesses,  with  holy  and  benevolent  utterances,  amidst 
which,  from  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  and  giver  of  them  all,  the 
faithful  witness,  whose  name  is  called  the  Word  of  God,  came 
to  the  heart  of  the  man  of  God  the  great  words,  "  Inasmuch 
as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren, 
ye  have  done  it  unto  me ;  ^d,  inasmuch  as  ye  have  not  done 
it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  have  not  done  it  unto  me ! " 
— came  also  the  great  command,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself,"  and  "  Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them."  Attended  by  such  angels, 
commissioned  by  such  words,  John  Brown  grew  onward  to 
the  sphere  of  character  and  duty  for  which  God  had  appoint- 
ed him.  The  same  influence  in  kind  came  upon  him  as  upon 
.Jeremiah,  the  same  concentration  and  intensifying  of  Divine 
revelation  in  one  direction,  as  always  happens  when  God 
pleases,  and  when,  for  His  own  great  purposes,  He  will  disci- 
pline and  prepare  a  man  for  himself,  to  bear  the  reproach 
among  men  of  being  a  fanatic,  —  a  man  of  one  idea.  "  From 
above  He  hath  sent  fire  into  my  bones.  His  word  was  in  my 
heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was  weary 
with  forbearing,  and  I  could  not  stay." 

With  an  eye  single  against  the  iniquity  of  Slavery  in  law 
and  in  practice,  John  Brown,  trusting  in  God,  has  thrown 
hunself  into  this  conflict,  a  martyr  even  unto  death.  By  his 
death,  in  the  train  of  his  daring  opposition  against  this  infinite 
unrighteousness  in  law,  in  government,  and  in  society,  the 
whole  country  is  stirred  to  its  foundations;  and  concerning 
the  government  and  the  people  that  sustain  such  iniquity^  and 


2l6 


George  B.  Cheever. 


put  to  death  those  that  rise  up  ag^Et  it,  there  cometh  out  of 
the  whirlwind  and  jSre  of  Divine  revelation  infolding  itself, 
the  voice  of  the  Almighty,  "  Execute  judgment  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  deliver  him  that  is  spoiled  out  of  the  hand  of  the 
oppressor,  lest  my  fury  go  forth  like  fire,  and  burn  that  none 
can  quench  it,  because  of  the  evil  of  your  doings.  Execute  ye 
judgment  and  righteousness,  and  deliver  the  spoiled  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  oppressor,  and  do  no  wrong,  do  no  violence  to  the 
stranger,  the  fatherless,  nor  the  widow,  neither  shed  innocent 
blood  in  this  place.  But  if  ye  will  not  hear  these  words,  I 
swear  by  myself,  saith  the  Lord,  that  this  house  shall  become 
a  desolation."  Will  the  country  hear  these  words  ?  Will  the 
people  lay  them  to  heart,  and  shall  judgment  return  unto 
righteousness,  that  the  Lord's  vengeance  may  be  mercifully 
averted? 

We  must  look  this  great  event  in  the  face,  and  bring  the 
deeds  and  character  of  the  man,  as  against  the  government, 
under  solemn  examination,  under  the  burning  glass  of  God's 
Word,  that  we  may  see  which  party  God  condemns,  and 
whose  sentence  God  will  execute.  As  for  me,  God  forbid 
that  I,  amidst  the  storm  of  reproaches  and  of  slander,  should 
sLrink  back  from  such  an  examination ;  and  God  forbid  that 
we,  as  a  church  and  people,  having  been  brought  of  God 
unconsumed  through  so  many  fires,  should  now  perish  in  the 
smoke,  because  we  are  afraid  of  the  continuance  of  the  clear 
fire,  notwithstanding  that  we  have  the  Son  of  God  walking 
with  us  in  the  midst  of  it. 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  state  of  the  case,  in  the  complica- 
tion, accumulation,  and  climax  of  iniquity,  against  which  A 
UAN,  one  of  the  noblest  of  his  race,  has  made  his  protest,  and 
for  putting  that  protest  into  action,  has  been  hanged  as  a 
murderer.  It  is  a  most  intense  and  awful  contrast.  God 
says,  "  The  man  that  commits  this  iniquity  of  Slavery  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death."  The  State  in  this  thing,  at  len<ith 
instantly  and  openly  setting  itself  against  God,  eays,  "The 


George  B.  Cheever. 


217 


man  that  opposes  this  iniquity  shall  surely  be  put  to  death." 
The  State  not  only  tolerates  the  iniquity,  but  enthrones  it  as 
righteousness,  establishes  it  with  the  sanction  of  law,  and 
condemns  the  violation  of  the  law  sanctioning  the  iniquity  to 
the  same  penalty  that  God  Almighty  has  set  against  the  in- 
iquity itself.  God  declares  that  "He  that  stealeth  a  man  and 
selleth  him,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hands,  he  shall  surely  be 
put  to  death."  The  State  declares  that  he  that  stealeth  and 
selleth,  or  if  he  be  found  in  his  hands,  shall  be  honored  and 
applauded  as  a  righteous  man,  and  that  his  act  and  practice 
shall  be  carried  into  perpetual  establishment  as  a  system,  so 
that  not  only  the  stolen  beings  shall  be  considered  as  his  law> 
ful  and  sacred  property,  but  their  children  and  their  children's 
children  shall  be  stolen  and  branded  forever  as  property  from 
the  birth.  God  says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  merchandise  of 
thy  brother  man."  The  State  says,  "  Thou  shalt  make  mer- 
chandise of  thy  brother,"  and  such  merchandise  is  the  most 
sacred  of  all  property,  and  especially  if  thy  brother  be  guilty 
of  a  skin  not  colored  like  thine  own  he  has  no  rights  that 
white  men  are  bound  to  respect ;  he  cannot  and  shall  not  be 
like  thyself,  a  citizen,  neither  shall  he  be  under  any  protecr 
tion,  for  his  rights  as  a  man,  of  the  laws  that  protect  thee. 
God  says,  "  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  ser- 
vant that  has  escaped  from  his  master  unto  thee.  He  shall 
dwell  with  thee,  even  among  you  in  that  place  which  he  shall 
choose,  in  one  of  thy  gates  where  it  liketh  him  best ;  thou 
shalt  not  oppress  him."  The  State  says,  "  Thou  shalt  op- 
press him ;  thou  shalt  deliver  him  up ;  thou  shalt  refuse  him 
aid  and  shelter ;  thou  shalt  not  permit  him  to  dwell  among 
you ;  if  thou  do  not  deliver  him  thou  shalt  suffer  the  penalty, 
and  if  thou  aid  the  fugitive  or  interfere  to  protect  him  thou 
art  a  criminal,  and  if  thou  entice  him  to  his  freedom  thoi) 
shalt  be  henged  for  treason." 

The  iniquity  is  ten  thousand  times  worse  thus  concentrated, 
commanded,  and  perpetuated  in  law,  than  it  wa^t  Pr  ever 
19  ♦ 


2l8 


George  B.  Cheever. 


could  be,  as  naked  individual  cruelty  and  crime  without  law, 
and  without  the  provision  of  its  perpetual  sanction  and  in- 
crease.  And  the  obligation  towards  God  and  man,  upon  every 
man,  to  set  himself  against  it;  is  ten  thousand  times  greater 
when  human  law  thus  commands  and  perpetuates  what  God 
has  forbidden,  than  it  could  be  where  no  law  enthroned  and 
protected  the  villany.  Two  crimes,  in  this  case,  require 
opposition,  instead  of  one;  two  forms  of  crime,  —  and  the 
second  the  vastest,  most  atrocious,  most  terrible.  For  God 
hath  publicly  and,  solemnly  expelled  from  sanction  and  fel- 
lowship the  throne  of  iniquity  that  frameth  mischief  by  a 
law. 

Now  a  man  has  risen  up  to  fling  God's  protest  in  the  face 
of  such  a  State,  and  to  put  the  protest  into  action.  God 
evidently  prepared  the  man,  by  many  years  of  discipline,  of 
prayer,  of  instruction  in  His  "Word,  for  such  a  protest,  for  such 
a  work,  teaching  him  reliance  solely  on  God.  Having  taken 
His  own  time  and  in  His  own  way,  God,  who  seeth  the  end 
from  the  beginning,  and  not  as  man  seeth,  takes  this  trained 
servant  and  drives  him  openly  against  such  wickedness,  such 
a  State,  such  laws.  It  is  no  more  singular  that  God  should 
do  this  by  His  providence  than  that  He  hath  done  it  in  His 
word.  If  John  Milton  were  on  earth  he  would  show  you  that 
as  clearly  as  God  ever  sent  Ehud  against  Eglon  and  his 
tyranny,  so  clearly,  and  much  more,  was  John  Brown  com- 
missioned against  this  tyranny  of  Slavery,  and  against  the 
State  and  the  laws  t^at  uphold  it.  And  though  the  man 
might  mistake  as  to  the  manner  and  method  of  the  protesst, 
yet  that  it  is  God's  protest  is  as  true  as  that  it  is  God's  provi- 
dence. And  the  kind  of  instrument  that  God  has  taken  for 
this  work  is  a  most  plain  and  sacred  indication  that  it  is  from 
Him;  plain  and  sacred,  along  with  and  in  the  light. of  His 
requisitions  of  men  to  act  as  "  gapmen  "  in  vindication  of 
His  violated  law,  when  a  whole  land  seems  given  up  to  such 
violation. 


Greorge  B.'  Cheever. 


219 


Grod's  thoughts  are  not  as  our  thoughts ;  neither  are  Hia 
ways  as.  our  ways.  The  very  lowest  expounders  of  all  the 
race  of  apologists  for  sin,  the  extremest  defenders  of  the  in- 
iquity of  Slavery  as  righteousness,  must  acknowledge  that 
God  has  permitted  a  Christian  man  to  fling  this  defiance,  in 
God's  name,  against  both  the  Slavery  and  the  State  that  sus- 
tains it.  Obedience  to  Grod's  law  instead  of  man's,  obedience 
to  God's  law  against  man's,  is  a  Christian  work  when  man's 
law  is  against  God's.  Now,  it  is  no  wonder  that  God  should 
.  take  a  Christian  to  do  this  work.  And  if  any  evidences  of 
the  presence  of  His  Spirit  with  the  individual  doing  this  work 
can  be  relied  upon,  certainly  we  have  those  evidences. 

For  many  years  the  man  had  walked  with  God;  he  had 
trained  up  his  family  in  God's  fear ;  he  had  maintained  the 
family  altar,  and  all  the  sanctities,  the  instructions,  the  care- 
ful observant  discipline  of  a  household  piety.  He  had  been, 
a  man  of  strict,  known,  undoubted  integrity.  He  was  a  man 
whose  conscientious  sense  of  right  and  wrong  was  as  a  flame 
of  fire,  where  in  common  jnen  it  was  merely  a  spark  in 
sluggish  embers.  His  sensitiveness  to  injustice  was  extreme 
—injustice  against  others;  the  iron  entered  into  his  own  soul. 
He  was  accustomed,  with  grave  steadfastness  and  holy  princi- 
ple, to  rebuke  profaneness  and  wickedness  in  high  or  low.  In 
the  midst  of  his  trial,  wounded  and  lying  on  his  cot,  when  he 
hieard  the  oaths  of  some  in  the  court  room  round  about 
him,  he  would  raise  himself  upon  his  elbow,  and  calmly  say, 

Gentlemen,  can  you  not  compass  this  business  without 
swearing?"  Just  so  with  all  under  his  command;  both  by 
example  and  teaching  he  endeavored  to  inculcate  obedience 
to  the  precepts  of  religion. 

He  had  learned  from  a  child  the  sacredness  and  dignity 
of  human  nature  under  whatever  skin,  and  as  an  old  man 
on  the  verge  of  eternity  could  say,  with  the  simplicity  of  a 
child  and  the  majesty  of  an  angel,  "I  am  yet  too  young  to 
understand  that  God  is  any  respecter  of  persons.'* 


220 


George  B.  Cheever. 


He  had  long  been  a  student  of  God's  word.  He  made  it 
the  man  of  his  counsel,  and  sought  the  guidance  of  God's 
spirit  in  pondering  its  sacred  pages.  He  seems  to  have  been 
familiar  with  every  part  of  it,  but  by  God's  own  peculiar 
guidance  of  his  mind  and  heart,  was  baptized  especially  with 
the  fire  of  its  benevolence  against  oppression,  and  its  sacred 
sympathy  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed.  His  tender  sympa- 
thies and  practical  charities  abounded  towards  the  poor  and 
needy. 

An  apprentice  of  his  relates  the  following  anecdote  of  his 
benevolence.  Having  heard  that  a  poor  man  with  a  large 
&mily  were  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  he  sent  me 
to  his  house  to  inform  him  that  John  Bi'own  would  sell  him 
provisions  on  credit.  He  came  at  once  and  got  about  thirty 
dollars'  worth,  agreeing  to  pay  in  work  the  next  summer ;  but 
with  summer  came  other  calb  for  his  labor  than  the  payment 
of  old  debts ;  so  he  came  to  Brown  and  frankly  told  him  his 
situation,  and  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  pay  as  agreed 
upon.  The  noble  old  man  said  to  him, '  GrO  home  and  take 
care  of  your -family,  and  let  me  hear  no  more  about  this  debt 
JR  is  a  part  of  my  religion  to  assist  those  in  distresSj  and  to 
comfort  those  that  mourn.' " 

A  course  of  years  in  the  practice  of  such  virtues  indicates 
the  man  of  God,  even  if  his  profession  of  religion  had  not 
been  known  and  read  of  all.  "  For  by  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them,  for  men  do  not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  nor  figs 
of  thistles;  but  every  good  tree  bringeth  forth  good  fruit, 
while  a  cormpt  tree  bringeth  forth  evil  fruit." 

He  was  a  man  of  prayer.  He  walked  with  God  even 
amidst  surrounding  violence.  He  was  once,  it  was  said,  early 
in  life,  that  is,  at  the  beginning  of  his  Christian  career,  des- 
tined to  the  ministry,  and  there  is  nothing  that  we  know  of 
in  his  life,  amidst  the  pursuits  to  which  he  was  turned  aside 
from  such  preparation  and  such  a  vocation,  inconsistent  with 
the  baptism  of  God's  Spirit  for  the  ministration  of  the  GospeL 


George  B.  Cheever. 


221 


On  the  contrary,  in  one  great  point  of  fitness  for  that  work,  he 
seems  to  have  been  always  growing ;  increasing  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  Word  of  God,  in  a  reverential  submission  to  it,  in 
a  sense  and  living  experience  of  it  as  fire  and  power,  for  thus 
God  evidently  was  training  him. 

Now  with  these  developments  of  character,  these  posses- 
sions of  grace,  under  these  many  years  of  discipline,  this 
specimen  of  God's  fireworks  is  suddenly  touched  into  a  flame, 
and  rises  out  of  obscurity  into  a  light  that  fills  the  whole  at- 
mosphere, and  turns  the  eyes  of  the  spectators  of  a  whole 
nation  to  scan  the  spectacle.  This  man  of  God  breaks  out 
in  the  most  daring  venture  against  the  most  consolidated, 
remorseless,  powerful,  all-conquering  system  of  iniquity,  that 
any  civilized  country  ever  saw  or  endured ;  breaks  out  in  an 
act,  that  while  some  declare  by  God's  Word  to  be  the  venture 
of  a  man  in  God's  behalf,  doing  God's  work  against  the  vast- 
est of  human  crimes,  others  declare  to  be  the  act  of  a  mad- 
man ;  others  'he  hallucination  of  a  good  man ;  others  the 
crime  of  a  man  possessed  with  a  devil. 

But  amidst  all  the  hazards  and  disasters  of  the  outbreak, 
he  is  the  same  man  that  he  ever  has  been,  and  after  the 
conflict,  amidst  his  wounds,  amidst  his  enemies,  overpowered, 
apparently  unsuccessful,  he  is  as  calm  and  confident  as  ever 
in  God,  and  in  the  justice  and  sacredness  of  the  cause  he  has 
undertaken.  And  after  the  disastrous  failure  of  his  enter- 
prise, in  his  prison,  through  all  the  mockery  of  his  trial  and 
sentence,  and  in  all  his  words,  speeches,  letters,  in  all  his 
intercourse  with  men,  in  all  his  deportment,  he  is  the  same 
man  as  before ;  the  same  Christian  man  confiding  in  God.  He 
is  still  seen  walking  with  God,  and  God  does  not  desert  him. 
Nay,  the  evidences  of  the  presence  and  power  of  God's  Spirit 
in  his  heart  brighten  and  increase,  till  they  are  sublime, 
attractive,  wonderful.  He  speaks  and  writes  with  an  almost 
superhuman  simplicity,  dignity,  calmness,  and  depth  of  feel- 
ing ;  a  restraint,  an  absence  of  all  rhetoric,  ostentation,  and 
19* 


222  George  B.  Cheever. 


false  emotion ;  a  transparency  of  character,  a  profound  thought- 
fulness,  a  peace  of  mind,  a  trust  in  God,  quite  impossible  to 
be  assumed  in  such  a  position,  at  such  an  hour, —  quite  im- 
possible, indeed,  ever  under  such  circumstances  to  be  palmed 
off,  and  credit  gained  for  them,  by  a  self-deluded  man,  or  a 
wicked  man  and  an  impostor. 

After  the  battle  is  over,  —  after  this  mighty  crime,  as  some 
call  it,  for  which  he  is  sentenced  to  death,  —  in  the  soiled  and 
tattered  garments  bathed  in  blood,  chained,  reviled,  hated,  he 
appears  greater  than  ever,  more  manifestly  the  Christian  hero, 
in  possession  of  the  spirit  of  love  and  of  power  and  of  a  sound 
mind.  And  thus  daily  he  is  seen  preparing  for  death,  and 
daily  God  is  with  him.  If  there  can  be  any  evidences  of  this, 
they  are  granted.  There  were  those,  even  in  the  presence  of 
the  Saviour,  beholding  his  marvellous  works,  that  declared  that 
he  cast  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils ;  and 
our  blessed  Lord  said  that  if  they  had  called  the  master  of  the 
house  Beelzebub,  much  more  would  they  them  of  his  house- 
hold. Now,  methinks  none  but  such  blasphemers  could  deny 
the  evidences  of  John  Brown's  Christian  character  since  his 
overthrow.  Manifestly  God  was  with  him — with  him  to  the 
end —  with  him,  maintaining  his  confidence  in  the  justice  of 
his  cause  and  the  righteousness  of  his  effort,  even  unto  death 
—the  righteousness  of  the  very  act  for  which  he  was  to  die. 
God  was  with  him  so  sustaining,  as  to  enable  him  to  feel  and 
to  say  that  he  willingly  gave  himself  to  the  sentence  of  the. 
law,  counting  it  a  privilege  to  be  permitted  to  die  in  behalf  of 
the  outcast  race  for  which  he  had  endeavored  to  live,  and  for 
whose  deliverance  he  had  ventured  with  death  in  view. 

An  outcast  race !  And  John  Brown  felt  and  knew  that 
what  he  did  for  them  he  was  doing  for  his  Saviour.  Under 
sentence  of  death  for  an  action  in  their  behalf,  he  could  say 
that  he  considered  himself  ^  worth  inconceivably  more  to  be 
hung  in  this  cause  "  than  to  be  disposed  of  in  any  other  way; 
and  "could  wait  the  hour  of  his  public  murder  with  great 


George  B.  Cheever. 


223 


composure  of  mind  and  cheerfulness,  feeling  the  strong  assur- 
ance that  in  no  other  possible  manner  could  he  be  used  to  so 
much  advantage  to  the  cause  of  God  and  of  humanity." 

When  has  there  been  in  the  world  any  thing  like  this  ? 
It  has  properly  been  marked,  in  regard  to  the  brightest 
names  in  the  historic  records  of  self-sacrificing  patriotism,  in 
the  pages  of  the  struggles  for  liberty,  that  their  ventures  were 
for  their  own  country,  kindred,  homes,  every  thing ;  and  if 
ye  love  them  that  love  you  what  thank  have  ye?  If  ye^ 
salute  your  brethren  only,  or  defend  your  own  caste,  do  not 
even  the  publicans  so  ?  But  this  self-sacrifice  of  John  Brown 
was  for  a  despised  and  hated  race,  condemned  to  perpetual 
Slavery.  It  is  a  sublime  and  solitary  instance  in  all  modem 
history.  A  man  in  his  senses,  in  an  age  of  prudential  wisdom 
worshipped  as  religion — in  an  age  of  self-interest  and  expe- 
diency—  when  the  world  is  full  of  priests  and  Levites, — 
ecclesiastical,  political,  social,  — -  passing  by  on  the  other  side, 
offers  himself  in  the  service  of  a  despised,  rejected,  down-  ( 
trodden  caste,  pursues  his  purpose  for  twenty  years,  watches 
for  opportunities  to  strike  some  mighty  blow  of  deliverance, 
and  at  length,  thinking  that  God  had  given  him  the  hour, 
goes  forth  to  suffer  unto  death  for  slaves  —  for  negroes. 

And  then  his  submission  to  God's  will,  when  the  blow 
seemed  to  have  failed  and  nothing  remained  before  him  but 
to  die ;  his  cheerful  resignation,  in  the  confidence  that  God 
doeth  all  things  well ;  his  experience  of  the  peace  of  Grod  that 
passeth  all  understanding,  and  his  gratitude  to  God  for  such 
"  infinite  grace ; "  —  in  all  things  he  has  been  approved  as  a 
child  of  God  in  this  matter,  and  we  only  need  to  record  and 
ponder  his  own  expressions,  to  feel  assured  that  God  was 
with  him.  "  I  wish  I  could  only  know,"  said  he,  "  that  all 
my  poor  family  were  as  composed  and  as  happy  as  I.  I 
think  nothing  but  the  Christian  religion  could  ever  make  any 
.one  so  composed. 

'My  williDK  BOwl  would  stay 
In  Eucb  a  fi-amo  as  tbis." 


224  George  B.  Cheever. 


Again : 

"  As  I  believe  most  firmly  that  God  reigns,  I  cannot  believe  that 
any  thing  I  have  done,  stiffered,  or  may  i;ut  sniffer,  will  be  lost  io  the  cause 
of  God  or  of  humanity.  And  before  I  began  my  work  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  I  felt  assured  that  in  the  ivorst  event  it  -would  certainly  pat.  I 
often  expressed  that  belief,  and  I  can  now  see  no  possible  cause  to 
alter  my  mind.  I  am  not,  as  yet,  in  the  main,  at  all  disappointed.  I 
have  been  a  good  deal  disappointed  as  it  regards  myself  in  not  keeping 
up  to  my  oion  plans ;  but  I  now  feel  entirely  reconciled  to  that  even ; 
for  God's  plan  was  infinitely  better,  no  doubt,  or  I  should  have  kept  to 
niy  own.   God's  will,  not  mine,  be  dene  " 

Again,  the  mingled  "meekness  and  fear,"  coupled  with 
such  reverential  submission  to  the  will  of  God,  with  which  he 
describes  the  hope  that  sustains  him,  will  be  noted  as  among 
the  surest  evidences  of  his  being  under  the  guidance  of  God's 
Spirit,  the  subject  of  his  sanctifying  grace. 

«•  I  trust  that  God,  who  has  sustained  me  so  long,  will  not  forsake 
me  when  I  most  feel  my  need  of  Fatherly  aid  and  support.  Should 
He  hide  His  face,  my  spirit  will  droop  and  die ;  but  not  othcTwise,  be 
assured.  My  only  anxiety  is  to  be  properly  assured  of  my  fitness  for 
the  company  of  those  who  are  '  washed  from  all  filthiness,*  and  for 
the  presence  of  him  who  is  infinitely  i)urc.  I  certainly  think  I  do  have 
some  ♦  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness.*  If  it  be  only  genuine, 
I  make  no  doubt  I  '  shail  be  filled.' "  v 

The  sublime  consistency  and  firmness  of  the  testimony  of 
such  a  man  against  Slavery,  every  step  of  his  way  to  the 
grave,  are  to  be  marked,  in  connection  with  the  meek  sub- 
mission of  his  soul  to  God,  and  the  humility  with  which  he 
speaks  of  the  manifestation  of  God's  mercy.  He  Avould  not 
receive,  either  in  the  jail  or  on  the  scaffold,  the  ministrations 
of  men  who  consent  to  the  enslavement  of  their  fellow-crea- 
tures. He  declared  that  the  gospel  of  such  men  was  not  the 
Gospel  of  God,  and  that  he  could  have  no  communion  with 
them.  He  said  he  would  rather  be  accompanied  to  the  scaf- 
fold by  a  dozen  slave  children,  and  a  pious  old  slave  mother^ 
with  their  appeal  to  God  for  blessings  of  his  soul ;  and  an 


George  B.  Cheever.  225 


incident  is  related  of  his  passage  from  the  prison  to  the  scaf- 
fold, characteristic  and  affecting,  whicli  must  be  given  in  the 
language  of  the  relator. 

"  As  he  stepped  out  of  the  door  a  black  woman,  with  a' lit- 
tle child  in  her  arms,  stood  near  his  way.  The  twain  were  of 
the  despised  race,  for  whose  emancipation  and  elevation  to 
the  dignity  of  children  of  God,  he  was  about  to  lay  down  his 
life.  His  thoughts  at  that  moment  none  can  know  except 
as  his  acts  interpret  them.  He  stopped  for  a  moment  in  his 
course,  stooped  over,  and  with  the  tenderness  of  one  whose 
love  is  as  broad  as  the  brotherhood  of  man,  kissed  it  aflfec- 
tionately." 

Connect  again  with  these  notices  the  deep  humility  and 
tenderness  of  the  man  in  conscience  and  in  heart,  towards 
God  and  man,  as  revealed  in  such  a  letter  as  the  following, 
in  answer  to  one  who  had  written  to  him  as  a  "  dear  brother," 
to  encourage  him  in  Jesus. 

Your  kind  mention  of  some  things  in  my  conduct  here  which  you 
approve  is  very  comforting  indeed  to  my  mind ;  yet  I  am  conscious 
that  you  do  me  more  than  justice.  I  do  certainly  feel  that,  through 
Divine  grace  I  have  endeavored  to  be  '  faithful  in  a  few  things,'  min- 
gling with  even  these  much  of  imperfection.  I  am  certainly  unworthy 
'  even  to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God'  Yetj  in  Infinite  grace, 
He  has  tJnis  honored  me.  May  the  same  grace  enable  me  to  serve  Him 
in  « neio  obedience '  through  my  little  remainder  of  this  life,  and  to  re- 
joice in  Him  forever.  I  cannot  feel  that  God  will  suffer  the  poorest 
services  we  may  any  of  us  render  Him  or  His  cause  to  be  lost  or  in 
vain. 

'  «'  I  do  feel,  *  dear  Brother,'  that  I  am  wonderfully  '  strengthened  from 
on  high.'  Jlay  I  use  that  strength  in  •  showing  His  strength  unto  this 
generation,'  and  His  power  to  every  one  that  is  to  come. 

«<  I  am  most  grateful  for  your  assurance,  that  my  poor,  shattered, 
heart-broken  'family  will  not  be  forgotten.*  I  have  iong  tried  to 
commend  them  to  « the  God  of  my  Father.'  I  have  many  opportuni- 
ties for  faithful  plain  dealing  with  the  more  powerful,  influential,  and 
intelligent  class  in  this  region,  %\'hich  I  trust  are  not  entirely  misun- 
proved.  I  Jmmhhj  trust  that  I  firmly  believe  that  God  reigns,  and  I 
think  I  can  truly  say,  « Let  the  earth  rejoice.' 


226  George  B.  Cheever. 


«« May  God  bike  care  of  His  ozcn  cause  and  of  His  ovrsx.  name,  as 
■well  as  of  them  -who  love  their  neighbors." 

Now,  I  say  that  under  such  ch-cumstances,  John  Brown  has 
all  the  characteristics  of  a  martyr,  and  his  death  is  a  martyr's 
death.  The  false  accusations,  the  prejudice  and  hatred,  the 
reigning  religion  and  luw  against  him,  the  abuse,  the  torture, 
the  present  ignominy  and  sharae,  the  apparent  failure  of  his 
life,  and  defeat  of  all  his  plans,  and  perfect  triumph  of  his 
enemies  —  all  these  things  are  essential  circumstances  of  mar- 
tyrdom, as  a  just  cause  and  spirit  are  its  qualities.  Success 
never  can  make  a  martyr,  never  could  canonize  one,  and 
those  who  determine  the  moral  quality  of  an  action  or  a 
character  by  success,  are  not  Tit  to  sit  in  judgment  on  a  man 
like  John  Brown,  or  the  nature  of  his  enterprise.  A  mar- 
tyr's death  must  always,  at  the  time,  be  ignominious.  When 
Stephen  was  stoned,  it  was  not  amid  plaudits  of  his  cause 
and  character.  "When  Latimer  was  burned,  it  was  not  as 
on  a  theatre  of  popular  applause,  so  that  his  depai'ting  spirit 
could  be  wafted  away  upon  the  very  hallelujahs  of  his  per- 
secutors. A  martyr  is  always  put  to  death  by  the  hatred 
and  cruelty  of  men  under  a  cloud  of  obloquy  and  odium, 
under  authority  of  wicked  law  ;  what  men  sup{x>se  to  be  the 
highest  triumph  of  their  cause,  being,  in  fact,  but  the  climax 
and  highest  demonstration  of  their  wickedness  —  the  tilling 
up  of  the  measure  of  their  iniquity.  For  when  not  only  is 
the  wickedness  established  and  triumphant  with  consent  of 
all,  but  God  sends  witnesses  against  it,  and  men  put  the 
witnesses  to  death,  then  we  know  that  the  cup  is  well-nigh 
fall  and  the  end  is  not  far  off.  "  O,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem, 
thou  that  killest  the  prophets  and  stonest  them  that  are  sent 
unto  thee,  how  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  children 
as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye 
would  not !    Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you  desolate  ! " 

An  age  of  martyrdom  must  be  at  once  of  highest  wicked- 
ness and  popularity  in  the  government  and  laws,  and  of 


George  B.  Cheever.  227 


deepest  disgrace,  united  with  highest  enduring  firmness  and 
virtue  on  the  part  of  the  sufferer.  History  takes  up  his 
words  and  embalms  them ;  but  at  the  hour  of  his  trial  and 
death  there  are  few  hardy  enough  to  pronounce  a  verdict 
in  his  favor,  at  least  without  some  prudential  caveat  of  hal- 
'ucination,  monomania,  imprudence,  rashness,  or  fanaticism. 
There  are  few  that  are  willing  to  admit  his  sound  sense 
and  rightfulness  of  conduct  in  setting  himself  against  unjust 
government  and  law. 

John  Brown's  trial,  by  the  forms  of  such  law,  was  a  mar- 
tyr's trial,  not  many  times,  in  the  history  of  our  world,  trans- 
acted with  sucli  awful  issues,  in  such  grand  and  solemn  light. 
John  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs  being  opened  before  us,  you 
might  almost  think  a  score  of  pages  had  been  taken  from 
it  to  be  rehearsed  in  Charlestown.  John  Bunyan  could  hard- 
ly have  drawn  a  more  graphic  description  of  this  case,  as  to 
principle,  if  the  trial  of  Faithful,  with  all  the  proceedings, 
had  been  made  up  from  notes  of  this  modern  wickedness. 
You  can  recur,  almost  from  memory,  to  the  picture.  "  Then 
a  convenient  time  being  appointed,  they  brought  forth  their 
prisoners  to  their  trial,  in  order  to  their  condemnation.  When 
the  time  was  come,  they  were  brought  before  their  enemies 
and  arraigned.  The  judge's  name  was  Lord  Hategood; 
their  indictment  was  one  and  the  same  in  substance,  though 
somewhat  varying  in  form ;  the  contents  whereof  was  this : 
'That  they  were  enemies  to,  and  disturbers  of,  the  trade;  that 
they  had  made  commotions  and  divisions  in  the  town,  and 
had  won  a  party  to  their  own  most  dangerous  opinions,  in 
contempt  of  the  law  of  their  prince.'  Then  Faithful  began 
to  answer,  that  he  ha'l  only  set  himself  against  that  which 
had  set  itself  against  Him  tiiat  is  higher  than  the  highest." 

This  was  the  great  crime,  the  great  conflict.  And  when- 
ever a  great  sin  is  enthroned  in  government  and  law,  and  any 
man,  in  the  name  of  God,  sets  himself  with  God's  Word 
against  it,  disobeying  the  unrighteous  law,  and  teaching  men 


228  George  B.  Cheever. 


to  obey  God's  law  above  it,  God's  law  against  it,  the  con- 
flict is  irrepressible,  for  God  will  reign,  and  God's  children 
must  maintain  his  sovareignty,  and  the  supremacy  of  his 
law,  even  unto  death. 

Then  the  witnesses  were  called  against  him,  the  first  of 
whom  testified  that "  he  neither  regarded  prince  nor  people,  law 
nor  custom,  but  did  all  he  could  to  possess  all  men  Avith  cer- 
tain of  his  disloyal  notions,  affirming  in  particular,  that  Chris- 
tianity and  the  customs  of  our  town  of  Vanity  were  diametri- 
cally opposite,  and  could  not  be  reconciled.  By  which  saying, 
my  lord,  he  doth  at  once  not  only  condemn  all  our  laudable 
doings,  but  us  in  the  doing  of  them.  If  need  be,  when  the 
other  gentlemen  have  given  in  their  evidence,  rather  than 
any  thi;ig  shall  be  Avanting  that  will  despatch  him,  I  will 
enlarge  my  testimony  against  him.  Then,  when  *he  witness- 
es had  finished  their  testimony.  Faithful  declared,  among 
other  things,  that  he  never  said  aught  but  this,  tiiat  what 
rule,  or  laws,  or  custom,  or  people,  were  flat  against  the  Word 
of  God,  are  diametrically  oppo.«itc  to  Christianity." 

It  is  always  the  higher  and  the  lower  law  that  are  brought 
into  collision  in  every  such  trial,  and  the  victim  is  condemned 
for  setting  forth  and  teaching  and  acting  out  his  allegiance  to 
the  Higher  against  the  lower,  his  obedience  to  God  rather 
than  man.  Accordingly,  when  the  Jvlge  called  the  Jury,  he 
said :  "  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  see  this  man,  about  whom 
so  great  an  uproar  hath  been  made  :n  this  town  ;  you  have  also 
heard  what  these  worthy  gentlemen  have  witnessed  against 
him  ;  also,  you  have  heard  his  reply  and  confession :  it  lyeth 
now  in  your  breasts  to  hang  him,  or  save  his  life  ;  but  yet  I 
think  meet  to  instruct  you  in  our  law.  There  was  an  act 
made  in  the  days  of  Pharaoh  the  Great,  servant  to  our  prince, 
that,  lest  those  of  a  contrary  religion  should  multiply  and 
grow  too  strong  for  him,  their  males  should  be  thrown  into 
the  river.  There  was  also  an  act  made  in  tiie  days  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar the  Great,  another  of  his  servants,  that  whoever 


George  B.  Cheever. 


229 


would  not  fall  down  and  worship  his  golden  image,  should  be 
thrown  into  a  fiery  furnace.  There  was  al«o  an  act  made  in 
the  days  of  Darius,  that  whoso  for  some  time  called  upon  any 
god  but  him,  should  be  cast  into  the  lions'  den.  Now,  the 
substance  of  these  laws  this  rebel  hath  broken,  not  only  in 
thought,  (which  is  not  to  be  borne,)  but  also  in  word  and 
deed ;  which  must,  therefore,  needs  be  intolerable.  He  dis- 
puteth  against  our  religion  ;  and  for  the  treason  that  he  hath 
already  confessed,  he  deserveth  to  die  the  death. 

"  Then  went  the  jury  out,  whose  names  Avere  Messrs.  Blind- 
man,  No-good,  Malice,  Loye-lust,  Live-loose,  Heady,  Pligh- 
mind,  Enmity,  Liar,  Cruelty,  Hate-Light,  and  Implacable; 
who  every  one  gave  in  his  private  verdict  against  him.  among 
themselves,  and  afterwards  unanimously  concluded  to  bring 
him  in  guilty  before  the  judge.  And  so  they  did ;  therefore 
he  was  presently  condemned  to  be  had  from  the  place  where 
he  was,  to  the  place  from  whence  he  came,  and  there  to  be 
put  to  tlie  most  cruel  death  that  could  be  invented.  They 
therefore  brought  him  out,  to  do  with  him  according  to  their 
law,  burning  him  to  ashes  at  the  stake,"  after  divers  other 
tortures.    And  thus  came  Faithful  to  his  end. 

Now  this  is  a  chapter  from  past  reality,  which  we  never 
expected  to  see  reproduced  in  our  own  country,  under  a  so- 
called  free  government,  under  the  full  light  of  the  Christian 
religion.  The  possibility  of  it  shows  that  the  limit  of  for- 
bearance from  God  towards  us  is  I'eached ;  the  point  reached 
where  God  will  say,  Ephraim  is  joined  to  idols ;  let  him 
alone.  But  I  will  not  now  dwell  again  upon  this.  There 
is  a  brighter,  happier  picture  in  the  martyr's  fate,  which 
Bunyan  shdll  describe  in  his  own  brief  -words,  and  there  are 
some  sacred  lessons  to  be  drawn  from  the  whole  character 
and  transaction,  personal,  solemn,  important.  The  last  that 
human  eye  can  see  of  Faithful  is  the  form  of  his  crisped  and 
mangled  body  half  visible  throtigh  flame  and  smoke,  and  the 
multitude  of  spectators  stand  gazing,  some  noisy,  some  silent, 
20 


230  George  B.  Cheever. 


some  hoiTor  stricken.  But  "  now  I  saw,"  says  the  Dreamer, 
and  who  can  conceive  the  glorious  reality  hidden  under  these 
images,  "that  there  stood  behind  the  multitude  a  chariot  and 
a  couple  of  horses  waiting  for  Faithful,  who  (so  soon  as  his 
adversaries  had  despatched  him)  was  taken  up  into  it,  and 
straightway  was  carried  up  through  the  clouds  with  sound  of 
trumpet,  the  nearest  way  to  the  celestial  gate."  There  he 
had,  through  Clirist,  a  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  entered  in 
through  the  gates  into  the  city.  There  he  joined  the  great 
multitude  before  the  throne  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed 
•with  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their  hands.  There  upon 
the  sea  of  glass  mingled  with  fire,  he  joined  the  company 
of  those  who  overcame  Satan  on  earth  bv  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  and  the  word  of  their  testimony,  and  loved  not  their 
lives  unto  the  death.  Who  are  these  that  are  arrayed  in 
white  robes,  and  whence  came  they  ?  These  are  they  which 
came  out  of  great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes, 
and  have  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  There- 
fore are  they  before  the  throne  of  God,  and  serve  him  day 
and  night  in  his  temple,  and  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne 
shall  dwell  among  them.  They  shall  hunger  no  more, 
neither  thirst  any  more;  neither  shall  the  sun  light  on 
them,  nor  any  heat.  For  the  Lamb,  which  is  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne,  shall  feed  them,  and  shall  lead  them  to  living 
fountains  of  waters ;  and  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from 
their  eyes. 

The  cause  in  which  John  Brown  suffered  is  made,  if  pos- 
sible, more  sacred  than  ever  by  his  martyrdom,  which  has 
all  the  seals  that  ever  could  render  a  martyrdom  glorious. 
His  name,  his  memory,  his  letters,  the  vindication  of  his 
character  and  acts,  are  a  sacred  and  invaluable  trust  which 
a  large  portion  of  the  so-called  Church  of  Christ  in  this 
nation,  proud  and  judicially  blinded,  will  haughtily  and  scorn- 
fully reject.  Yet  God  will  not  let  the  lessons  of  such  a  life 
be  sealed  by  such  a  death  in  vain.   The  church  that  disowns 


George  B.  Cheever.  231 


him  is  not  worthy  of  him  ;  but  we  thank  God  for  the  divine- 
ly precious  and  sunlike  testimony  of  his  membership  in  the 
true  fold  of  Christ;  for  the  example  of  one  such  Christian 
is  confounding  to  a  thousand  hypocrites,  and  ought  to  bring 
back  to  Christ's  own  fold  the  unhappy  wanderers  whom  the 
blight  of  such  hypocrisy,  mistaken  for  religion,  has  made 
infidels. 

We  thank  God  that  the  first  public  victim  of  the  cruelty 
of  slave  law  and  of  the  slave  despotism  in  our  land,  should 
have  been  found  a  faitliful  servant  of  Christ,  so  unblemished, 
so  entire,  so  pure,  for  such  an  offering.  We  thank  God  that 
this  immolation,  so  awful,  so  solemn,  on  the  altar  of  this 
Moloch,  with  ostentatious  military  ministration  of  Federal  and 
State  powers,  as  the  willing  priests  of  its  worship,  has  been 
the  sacrifice  of  a  man  in  whom,  as  in  Daniel  of  old,  no  fault 
could  be  found,  except  concerning  the  law  of  his  God,  applied 
and  obeyed  by  liini  against  the  reigning  iniquity  of  the  na- 
tion. It  is  matter  for  profoundest  thoughtful  praise,  that  after 
the  moral  assassination  of  the  race  by  Federal  justice,  declar- 
ing that  black  men  have  no  riglits  that  white  men  are  bound 
to  respect,  this  culminating  State  crime  of  the  murder  of  the 
first  man  who  openly  struck  for  their  deliverance,  has  been 
signalized  by  finding  in  its  victim  a  being  with  God's  seal, 
God's  baptism,  God's  commission,  God's  truth  manifestly 
upon  him  and  within  him,  and  whose  very  form,  even  out  of 
prison  and  obscurity,  has  been  enlarging  and  becoming  radi- 
ant, as  with  a  divine  transfiguration,  ever  since  the  revenge- 
ful and  implacable  insr.lted  slave  power  lifted  him  to  the 
world's  gaze  as  a  tmitor  and  a  criminal. 

It  is  matter  for  grateful  joy  that  the  first  great  govei  Jient- 
al  martyr  of  this  wickedness  was  carried  to  his  act  of  treason 
against  it  by  the  impulses  of  a  Christian  heart  and  conscience, 
by  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God,  by  the  loftiest  teachings  of 
religion,  by  his  convictions  as  a  worshipper  of  that  God  who 
is  no  respecter  of  persons,  a  believer  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 


232  George  B.  Cheever. 


and  in  the  incompatibility  of  liis  Gospel  with  that  form  of  cru- 
elty and  sin,  for  opposing  the  law  and  government  of  which, 
in  seeking  the  deliverance  of  its  victims,  he  was  hanged  upon 
the  gallows.  It  is  matter  of  devout  thankfulness,  that  out  of 
the  malice  of  his  enemies,  out  of  the  rage  and  successful 
cruelty  of  the  slave  power,  out  of  the  roar  and  fury  of  the 
elements,  where  occurs  the  first  great  public  violent  collision 
between  conscience  and  law  in  the  question  of  the  right  of  Sla- 
very to  exist,  the  grand  emphatic  development  and  exhibition, 
filling  all  minds  with  astonishment,  is  that  of  the  most  exalted 
personal  virtue,  piety,  heroism,  against  which  the  slave  power 
feels  that  it  has  no  right  but  that  of  murder,  no  security  but 
that  of  hanging.  The  storm  has  been  raging  and  two  seas 
have  met,  and  on  the  height  of  this  great  first  wave  we  see, 
as  by  the  midnight  lightning  of  God,  the  form  of  John  Brown 
raised  between  heaven  and  earth,  —  a  moment  seen,  then 
gone  forever.  But  the  image  shall  remain,  —  the  sight  of 
that  gallows  and  the  forrri  of  the  Christian  victim  upon  it,  — 
destined,  we  may  hope  in  God,  to  awaken  a  deeper,  holier, 
more  intense  and  comprehensive  indignation  and  hatred 
against  Slavery,  than  the  detail  of  any  of  its  less  public  and 
illustrious  atrocities  has  ever  produced. 
'  Now,  again,  we  affirm  tlie  obligation  of  gratitude  to  God 
for  John  Brown's  Christian  character.  It  is  just  cause  for 
praise  that  God  has  sc  sanctified  the  battle  against  Slavery ; 
that  He  would  not  leave  the  glory  nor  the  suffering  of  this 
terrible  protest  to  be  monopolized  by  any  mere  soldier  of  this 
world,  or  any  unbeliever  in  Him;  but  that  He  prepared  a 
Christian  warrior  to  strike  this  fearful  blow,  and  then,  when 
it  had  been  struck,  continued  with  him  amidst  its  conse- 
quences ;  shielding  him  with  His  truth  and  buckler,  not 
deserting  him  as  if  he  had  plunged  into  some  forbidden  sin, 
but  filling  his  mind  with  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all 
understanding ;  —  showing  forth  to  all  men  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  with  Jesus,  revealing  as  through  a  transparency 


George  B.  Cheever.  233 


the  hidden  life  of  faith  that  was  impelling  him,  breaking  open 
beforehand  the  seals  of  the  invisible  engraving  of  God's  Spirit 
on  his  soul,  and  making  his  bare  heart  a  living  epistle  known 
and  read  of  all  men ;  publishing  from  that  heart  letter  after 
letter  of  such  apostolic  simplicity,  gravity,  sound  speech  that 
cannot  be  condemned  —  no  incongruous  utterance  intermin- 
gled ;  continuing  him  long  enough  in  life  himself  to  examine 
his  own  conduct  in  the  view  of  death,  and  to  reiterate  his 
calm  affirmation  of  the  righteousness  of  the  deed  for  which  he 
was  to  suffer  as  a  criminal ;  abjuring  and  denying  all  pur- 
pose, all  motive,  all  idea  of  personal  revenge ;  declaring  tliat 
he  desired  and  intended  simply  the  rescue  of  slaves,  without 
injury  to  any  one  ;  that  he  never  did  intend  murder,  or  trea- 
son, or  the  destruction  of  property,  or  to  excite  or  incite 
slaves  to  rebellion,  or  to  waken  insurrection ;  avowing,  also, 
the  right  and  duty  of  all  men  to  assist  the  enslaved  to  regain 
their  liberty ;  declaring  his  holy  and  resolute  defiance  of  the 
slave  power  and  wickedness,  and  his  rejection,  on  the  verge 
of  eternity,  of  any  ministry  that  would  sanction  such  wicked- 
ness as  maintaining  a  religion  incompatible  with  the  law  of 
God  and  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  perfectness  and  glory  of  this  protest  —  its  complete- 
ness, its  sublimity,  its  solemnity  and  firmness,  even  to  the  end, 
surpass  all  possibility  of  mere  human  contrivance,  and  are  at 
once  the  work  of  a  Divine  Providence,  and  the  impulse  of 
Divine  truth  and  grace.  In  all  this  there  are  wonderful 
lessons  as  to  the  right  manner  and  method  of  our  warfare 
against  Slavery  —  as  to  the  spirit  that  God  sanctions ;  as  to 
the  weapons  that  He  would  have  us  use;  as  to  the  moral 
omnipotence  of  his  Word ;  as  to  the  necessity  of  being  rooted 
and  grounded  in  it,  and  in  the  love  which  it  inspires ;  as  to 
the  impossibility  of  being  supported  and  made  faithful  to  the 
end  by  any  other  strength  than  God's  strength;  as  to  the 
power  of  prayer,  the  necessity  of  walking  with  God  in  every 
enterprise,  and  the  serenity  and  confidence  which  the  habit 
20* 


234  George  B.  Cheever. 


of  so  walking  with  God  infuses  into  the  soul,  as  well  as  the 
might  and  sovereignty  with  which  it  invests  it. 

We  have  here  a  character  magnificent  on  principle.  "We 
have  a  man  submissively  regardful  of  God's  "Word  as  the 
expression  of  His  supreme  and  Tovereign  righteousness  and 
will.  We  have  a  man  sympathizing  with  God,  jealous  for 
God  ;  not  a  man  of  mere  sympathy,  —  above  all,  not  of  sym- 
pathy with  the  oppressor,  but  with  the  oppressed.  We  have 
the  grave  characteristic  of  jealousy  for  God's  great  justice 
and  righteousness — jealousy  for  God's  law,  against  every 
law  and  practice  that  violates  it.  This  type  of  character  is 
of  the  old  Puritan  Mayflower  stamp.  It  would  seem  as  if 
the  plates  of  that  character  must  i-  n  ve  been  stolen  away  from 
that  first  generation  and  buried ;  but  now,  after  two  hundred 
years,  a  new,  fresh,  vivid  impression  is  before  us.  Perhaps 
God  is  going  to  cast  in  the  furnace,  just  now  kindled,  a  new 
set  of  plates.  At  any  rate,  God  has  r  aewed,  for  our  admira- 
tion and  for  the  slave  power  to  hate  and  hang,  the  marvel,  in 
this  age,  of  an  old,  stern,  brave,  yet  courteous  and  loving 
Puritan  hero.  The  character  is  God*s  work,  not  man's,  and 
it  fills  us  with  admiration  to  see  so  commanding  a  form  rise 
up  in  this  age  of  fxpediency,  and  mere  cheap  sensibility  and 
tears  ;  so  commanding  a  manifestation  of  righteous  principle 
towering  above  all  expediency,  and  of  sympathy  in  behalf  of 
the  enslaved,  where  vested  rights  in  them  as  property  are 
claimed  as  so  legitimate  and  holy,  that  no  law  of  God,  nor 
justice,  nor  benevolence,  can  have  any  right  to  interfere  Avith 
them. 

Such  a  character  shows  the  power  of  prayer,  and  such  a 
crisis  shows  the  need  of  it.  What  could  John  Brown  have 
accomplished,  had  he  not  been  a  man  of  prayer  ?  And  were 
it  not  for  the  belief  men  have  in  his  Christian  character 
before  God,  how  vain  would  have  been  his  letters,  his  words, 
his  grand  utterances ;  how  ineffectual,  but  for  the  assurance 
of  his  Christian  integrity,  but  for  the  depths  of  Christian 


George  B.  Cheever.  235 


experience  out  of  which  those  utterances  sprang.  Look  how 
his  familiarity  with  God's  Word,  and  the  possession  of  his 
wliole  being  with  the  sense  of  God's  attributes,  God's  pres- 
ence, God's  truth  and  justice,  carry  a  weight,  a  power,  a 
majesty  in  his  expressions  that  nothing  can  equal.  Before 
such  demonstrations  of  the  power  and  teaching  of  God's  Word 
in  his  heart  the  most  glowing  eloquence  is  poor  and  feeble. 
Men  feel  that  it  would  have  "been,  impossible  to  have  con- 
ceived or  framed  this  man's  singularly  simple,  forcible,  and 
sacred  speeches  and  letters,  under  such  awful  circumstances, 
but  by  more  than  mortal  teaching,  out  of  the  habit  of  a  soul, 
whose  resting  place  was  God,  and  God  his  rock  and  refuge. 
The  habit  of  prayer  and  communion  with  God's  Word  seems 
to  have  made  him  what  he  was,  and  such  passages  as  the 
46th  Psalm  might  have  been  the  habitual  hymn  of  his  sancti- 
fied nature. 

That  such  a  man  should  have  been  hanged  by  a  professed- 
ly civilized  and  Christian  State,  for  the  benevolent  attempt  to 
rescue  a  few  of  his  oppz'essed  and  enslaved  fellow-beings 
from  the  bondage  and  cruelties  of  Slavery ;  and  hanged  on 
the  pretence  that  he  had  committed  treason  against  the  State 
and  the  government ;  and  hanged  on  the  principle  of  expedi- 
ency announced  by  Caiaphas  of  old,  that  if  he  were  permitted 
to  live,  the  State  was  in  danger;  all  this  brings  both  the 
State  and  the  crime  of  hanging  such  a  victim  into  a  dreadful 
resemblance  W'ith  the  Jewish  murderers  of  Christ,  on  the 
plea  that  it  was  expedient  that  one  man  should  die  rather  than 
the  whole  nation  stand  in  danger  of  perishing.  Doubtless 
the  death  of  John  Brown  is  the  beginning  of  the  end.  God 
in  his  infinite  mercy  grant  that  through  the  faithfulness  of  his 
servants  with  his  Word,  attended  by  his  Spirit,  the  end  may 
come  in  a  peaceful  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  not  in  a 
whirlwind  of  the  Divine  vengeance. 


John  Brown  op  Harper's  Ferrt. 


H£BO  that  pays  our  country's  pawn  1 

The  soul  that  felt,  and  dared  to  smite  I 
The  man  who  dies  to  say  that  Kight 

Is  better  stuff  than  blood  and  brawn  I 

Our  words  that  spun  full  throe  years'  coarse 
On  Freedom  failing  sun  by  sun, 
In  him  to  molten  lightnings  run, 

And  welded  thinlung  into  force. 

In  rongh-cast  brain  this  Northern  will, 

From  suffering  all  its  steel  bad  wrought, 
Till,  striking  surer  than  its  thonght. 

The  shock  rang  sharp  from  hill  to  hill. 

Ab,  sire  I  our  tears  are  such  as  roll 
On^ys  of  Triumpb,  not  of  Death ; 
We  bring  thee  them,  and  love  and  faith,— 

Our  royal  way  of  soul  for  soul. 

We  count  thy  dying  so  sublime, 

Our  woman-hands  we  would  not  lay 
About  that  bvave  old  heart  to  stay 

Its  flowing  life,  and  wrong  our  time. 

O,  donbt  not  who  of  these  shall  win  I 
Or  who  is  traitor  to  tb'  eleven  I 
This  man  in  front  of  open  heaven. 

Or  vnrathful  ones  that  swing  him  in. 

Donbt  not  our  world  takes  heart  again ; 
And  hands  of  brotherhood  grow  warm. 
Starting  each  other,  palm  to  palm, 

With  this  hot  stroke  on  Southern  chain. 

Earth  feels  the  time  of  prophet-song,  — 
When  lives  from  land  to  land  shall  say, 
And  think  it  praise  enough  to  say,  — 

"We  are  too  just  to  bide  with  Wrong." 

O,  comes  a  deeper  wisdom  then !  — 
And  owns  that  in  our  golden  year, 
One  flre-anointed  soul  was  clear 

To  glass  God's  image  forth  to  men. 

0.  P.  H 

WOECEBIEE,  Nov.  14. 


NON-INTERVENTIONISTS. 


The  Contrast. 


«  We'u,  force  the  tax,  and  rule  your  trade," 
In  times  gone  by,  Great  Britain  said ; 
"  Let  Adams,  Hancock,  Otis,  rave, 
The  red  cross  o'er  yon  still  shall  wave." 

An^  then  Old  Faneuil  Uall  rang  out. 
With  patriots'  speech,  and  freemen's  shout : 
"Though  war  and  rapine  scourge  the  land. 
We  scorn  the  laws  by  despots  planned." 

Another  "Old  Dominion"  now 
Beneath  her  yoke  bids  Boston  bow ; 
Not  Union,  but  subjection,  claims 
Of  those  who  bear  heroic  names. 

And,  straightway,  Faneuil  Ilall  sends  out 
The  gilded  speech  and  purchased  shout, 
"  Insult,  oppress  us,  as  yon  will, 
We  kiss  your  feet,  and  serve  you  still." 

BosTONf  December,  1859. 


I. 


Speech  by  Hon.  Edward  Everett  * 

MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIi:ENS :  In 
rising  to  address  you,  on  this  important  occasion,  in- 
dulge me  in  a  few  words  of  personal  explanation.  I  did  not 
suppose  that  any  thing  could  occur  which  would  make  me 
think  it  my  duty  to  appear  again  on  this  platform,  on  any 
occasion  of  a  political  character ;  and  had  this  meeting  been  of 
a  party  nature,  or  designed  to  promote  any  party  purposes,  I 
should  not  have  been  here.  When  compelled,  by  the  prostra- 
tion of  my  health  five  years  ago,  to  resign  the  distinguished 
place  which  I  then  filled  in  the  public  service,  it  was  with  no 
expectation,  no  wish,  and  no  intention  of  ever  again  mingling 
in  the  scenes  of  public  life.  I  have  accordingly,  with  the  par- 
tial restoration  of  my  health,  abstained  from  all  participation 
in  political  action  of  any  kind  ;  partly  because  I  have  found  a 
more  congenial,  and,  as  I  venture  to  think,  a  more  useful 
occupation  in  seeking  to  rally  the  affections  of  my  country- 
men, North  and  South,  to  that  great  name  and  precious  mem- 
ory which  is  left  almost  alone  of  all  the  numerous  kindly  asso- 
ciations, which  once  bound  the  different  sections  of  the  country 
together ;  and  also  because,  between  the  extremes  of  opinion 
that  have  lone:  distracted  and  now  threaten  to  convulse  the 
country,  I  find  no  middle  ground  of  practical  usefulness,  on 
which  a  friend  of  moderate  counsel  can  stand.  I  think  I  do  a 
little  good,  —  I  try  to,  —  in  my  waning  years,  in  augmenting 

'   *  Delivered  at  tlio  Uaion  Meeting  in  Faneuil  IlaU,  December  8, 1859. 

(239) 


240 


Edward  Everett. 


the  funds  of  the  charitable  institutions,  —  commemorating 
from  time  to  time  the  honored  dead  and  the  great  events  of 
past  days,  and  chiefly  in  my  humble  efforts  to  rescue  from 
desecration  and  the  vicissitudes  of  private  property,  the  home 
and  the  grave  of  "Washington.  These,  sir,  seem  to  me  to 
be  innocent  and  appropriate  occupations  for  the  decline  of  life. 
I  am  more  than  contented  with  the  favor  with  which  these 
my  humble  labors  are  regarded  by  the  great  majority  of  my 
countrymen ;  and  knowing  by  experience  how  unsatisfying  in 
the  enjoyment  are  the  brightest  prizes  of  political  ambition, 
I  gladly  resign  the  pursuit  of  them  to  younger  men. 

Sir,  the  North  and  the  South,  including  the  Northwest  and 
the  Southwest,  have  become  fiercely,  bitterly  arrayed  against 
each  other.  There  is  no  place  left  in  public  life  for  those  who 
love  them  both.  The  war  of  words  —  of  the  press,  of  the  plat- 
form, of  the  State  Legislatures,  and,  must  I  add,  the  pulpit  ? 
— has  been  pushed  to  a  point  of  exasperation,  which,  on  the 
slightest  untoward  accident,  may  rush  to  the  bloody  arbitrament 
of  the  sword.  The  great  ancient  master  of  political  science 
(Aristotle)  tells  us,  that  though  revolutions  do  not  take  place 
for  small  causes,  they  Aofrom  small  causes.  He  means,  sir, 
that  when  the  minds  of  the  community  have  become  hope- 
lessly embittered  and  exasperated  by  long-continued  irritation, 
the  slightest  occurrence  will  bring  on  a  convulsion. 

In  fact,  it  seems  to  me,  that  we  have  reached  a  state  of 
things,  which  requires  all  good  men  and  f^od  patriots  to  fore- 
go for  a  time  mere  party  projects  and  calculations,  and  to 
abandon  all  ordinary  political  issues ;  which  calls,  in  a  word, 
upon"  all  who  love  the  country  and  cherish  the  Union,  and 
desire  the  continuance  of  those  blessings  which  we  have  till 
lately  enjoyed  under  the  Constitution  transmitted  to  us  by  our 
Fathers,  —  and  which  I  regard  as  the  noblest  work  of  politi- 
cal wisdom  ever  achieved,  —  and  to  meet  as  one  man  and 
take  counsel  for  its  preservation.  It  is  this  feeling  that  lias 
brought  me  here  to-day. 


Edward  Everett 


241 


It  will  probably  be  said,  sir,  that  those  who  entertain  views 
like  these  exaggerate  the  gravity  of  the  crisis.  I  wish  I 
could  think  so.  But  I  fear  it  is  not  we  who  exaggerate,  but 
those  who  differ  from  us,  that  greatly — and  soon,  I  fear,  it 
it  will  be  fatally — underrate  the  ominous  signs  of  the  times. 
I  fear,  sir,  that  they  are  greatly  misled  by  the  one-sided 
views  presented  by  the  party  press,  and  those  who  rely  upon 
the  party  press  exclusively  for  their  impressions,  and  that  they 
are  dangerously  ignorant  of  the  state  of  opinion  and  feeling 
in  the  other  great  section  of  the  country.  I  greatly  fear  that 
the  mass  of  the  community  in  this  quarter,  long  accustomed 
to  treat  all  alarm  for  the  stability  of  the  Union  as  groundless, 
and  all  professed  anxiety  for  its  preservation  as  insincere, 
or,  if  sincere,  the  result  of  nervous  timidity,  have  unfitted 
themselves  to  measure  the  extent  and  the  urgency  of  the 
existing  danger.  It  is  my  own  deliberate  conviction,  formed 
from  some  opportunities  of  personal  observation,  and  from 
friendly  correspondence  with  other  parts  of  the  country, 
(though  I  carry  on  none  of  a  political  nature,)  that  we  are  on 
the  very  verge  of  a  convulsion,  which  will  shake  the  Union  to 
its  foundation;  and  that  a  few  more  steps  forward,  in  the 
direction  in  which  affairs  have  moved  for  a  few  years  past, 
will  bring  us  to  the  catastrophe. 

I  have  heard  it  urged  on  former  occasions  of  public  alarm, 
that  it  must  be  groundless,  because  business  goes  on  as  usual, 
—  and  the  theatres  are  open,  and  stocks  keep  up.  Sir,  these 
appearances  may  all  be  delusive.  The  great  social  machine 
moves  with  a  momentum  that  cannot  be  suddenly  stopped. 
Tlie  ordinary  operations  of  business  went  on  in  France,  in  the 
revolution  of  1789,  till  the  annihilation  of  the  circulating  me- 
dium put  a  stop  to  every  thing  that  required  its  use.  The 
theatres  and  all  the  other  places  of  public  amusement  were 
crowded  to  madness  in  the  reign  of  terror.  The  French 
stocks  never  stood  better  than  they  did  in  Paris  on  the  21st 
of  February,  1848.  On  (lie  24th  of  that  moqth,  Louis 
21 


242 


Edward  Everett. 


Philippe  was  flying  in  disguise  from  his  capital ;  the  Tuile- 
Ties  were  sacked,  and  the  oldest  monarchy  in  Europe  had 
ceased  to  exist. 

I  hold  it  to  be  time,  th^n,  sir,  as  I  have  said,  for  good  men 
and  good  patriots,  casting  iiside  all  mere  party  considerations, 
and  postponing  at  least  all  ordinary  political  issues,  to  pause ; 
to  look  steadily  in  the  face  the  coLdition  of  things  to  which 
we  are  approaching;  and  to  ask  their  own  consciences 
whether  they  can  do  nothing  or  say  nothing  to  avert  the 
crisis,  and  bring  about  a  happier  and  a  better  state  of  things. 
I  do  not  ask  them  to  search  the  past  for  topics  of  reproach  or 
recrimmation  on  men  or  parties.  We  have  had  enough  of 
that,  and  it  has  contributed  materially  to  bring  about  our 
present  perilous  condition.  In  all  countries-  where  speech 
and  the  press  are  free,  especially  those  countries  which  by 
controlling  natural  causes  fall  into  two  great  sections,  each 
possessing  independent  local  legislatures  and  centres  of  politi- 
cal opinion  and  influence,  there  will  in  the  lapse  of  time 
unavoidably  be  action  and  reaction  of  word  and  deed.  Vio- 
lence of  speech  or  of  act  on  the  one  side,  will  unavoidably 
produce  violence  of  speech  and  act  on  the  other.  Each  new 
grievance  is  alternately  cause  and  effect ;  and  if,  before  resort- 
ing to  healing  counsels,  we  are  determined  to  run  over  the 
dreary  catalogue,  to  see  who  was  earliest  or  who  has  been 
most  to  blame,  we  engage  in  a  controversy  in  which  there  is 
no  arbiter,  and  of  which  there  can  be  no  solution. 

But,  without  reviving  the  angry  or  sorrowful  memories  of 
the  past,  let  me,  in  all  friendliness,  ask  the  question,  What  has 
either  section  to  gain  by  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  with  ref- 
erence to  that  terrible  question  which  threatens  to  destroy  it? 
I  ask  patriotic  men  in  both  sections  to  run  over  in  their 
minds  the  causes  of  complaint  which  they  have,  or  think  they 
have,  in  the  cidsting  state  of  things,  and  then  ask  themselves 
dispassionately  whether  any.  thing  is  to  be  gained,  any  thing 
to  be  hoped,  by  pushing  the  present  alienation  to  that  fatal 


Edward  Everett. 


243 


bourn,  from  which,  as  from  death,  there  is  no  return  ?  Will 
the  South  gain  any  greater  stability  for  her  social  system,  ^ 
any  larger  entrance  into  the  vacant  public  territories  ?  Will 
the  North  have  effected  any  one  object,  which  by  men  of  any 
shade  of  opinion,  extreme  or  moderate,  is  deemed  desirable ; 
on  the  contrary,  will  not  every  evil  she  desires  to  remedy  be 
confirmed  and  aggravated?  If  this  view  of  the  subject  be 
correct,  what  can  be  more  unwise,  what  more  suicidal,  than 
to  allow  these  deplorable  dissensions  to  result  in  a  Revolution, 
which  will  leave  the  two  great  sections  of  the  country  in  a 
worse  condition  than  ir  €nds  them,  with  reference  to  the  very 
objects  for  which  they  allow  themselves  to  be  impelled  to 
the  dreadful  consummation? 

But  I  shall  be  told,  perhaps,  that  all  this  is  imaginary ;  that 
the  alarm  at  the  South  is  a  factitious  or  rather  a  groundless 
panic,  for  which  there  is  no  substantial  cause, — fit  subject 
for  ridicule  rather  than  serious  anxiety.  But  I  see  no  signs 
of  panic  in  Virginia,  except  for  a  few  hours  at  Harper's 
Ferry,  where,  in  the  confusion  of  the  first  surprise,  and  in 
profound  ignorance  of  the  extent  of  the  danger,  the  commu- 
nity was  for  a  short  time  paralyzed.  I  am  not  sure  that  a 
town  of  four  or  five  hundred  families  in  this  region,  invaded 
at  midnight  by  a  resolute  band  of  twenty  men,  entering  the 
houses  of  influential  citizens,  and  hurrying  them  from  their 
beds  to  a  stronghold,  previously  occupied,  and  there  holding 
them  as  hostages  —  I  am  not  sure,  sir,  that  an  equal  panic 
would  not  be  created  till  the  extent  of  the  danger  was  meas- 
ured. Besides,  sir,  if  the  panic  had  been  much  more  exten- 
sive than  it  was,  the  panics  of  great  and  brave  communities 
are  no  trifles.  Burke  said  he  could  not  frame  an  indictment 
against  a  whole  people ;  it  seems  to  me  equally  in  bad  taste, 
at  least,  to  try  to  point  a  sneer  at  a  State  like  Virginia.  The 
French  are  reputed  a  gallant  and  warlike  people;  beat  the 
letters  from  the  late  seat  of  war  tell  us,  that  even  after  the 
great  victory  of  Solferino,  a  handful  of  Austrians,  straggling 


244 


Edward'  Everett. 


into  a  village,  put  a  corps  of  the  French  army  —  thousands 
strong —  to  flight.  A  hundred  and  fifty  men  overturned  the 
French  monarchy,  on  the  occasion  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  in  1848.  When  the  circumstances  of  the  case  are 
taken  into  consideration,  I  suspect  it  will  be  agi'eed  that  any 
other  community  in  the  country,  similarly  situated,  would 
have  been  affected  in  the  same  way.  A  conflict  of  such  an 
unprecedented  character,  in  w^hich  twelve  or  fourteen  persons 
on  the  two  sides  were  shot  down,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
hours,  appears  to  me  an  event  at  which  levity  ought  to  stand 
rebuked,  and  a  solemn  chill  to  fall  upon  every  right-thinking 
man. 

I  fear.  Sir,  from  the  tone  of  some  of  the  public  journals, 
that  we  have  not  made  this  case  our  own.  Suppose  a  pai*ty 
of  desperate,  misguided  men,  under  a  resolved  and  fearless 
leader,  had  been  organized  in  Virginia,  to  come  and  establish 
themselves  by  stealth  in  Springfield  in  this  State,  intending 
there,  after  possessing  themselves,  at  the  unguarded  hour  of 
midnight,  of  the  National  Armory,  to  take  advantage  of  some 
local  cause  of  disaffection,  say  the  feud  between  Protestants 
and  Catholics,  —  which  led  to  a  very  deplorable  occurrence 
in  this  vicinity  a  few  years  ago,  —  to  stir  up  a  social  revolu- 
tion ;  that  pikes  and  rifles  to  arm  twenty-five  hundred  men 
had  been  procured  by  funds  raised  by  extensive  subscriptions 
throughout  the  South ;  that  at  the  dead  of  a  Sunday  night* 
the  work  of  destruction  had  begun,  by  shooting  down  an 
unarmed  man,  who  had  refused  to  join  the  invading  force ; 
that  citizens  of  the  first  standing  were  seized  and  imprisoned, 
—  three  or  four  others  killed  ;  and  when,  on  the  entire  failure 
of  the  conspiracy,  its  leader  had  been  tried, —  ably  defended 
by  counsel  from  his  own  part  of  the  country,  convicted  and 
executed,  that  throughout  Virginia,  which  sent  him  forth  on 
his  fatal  errand,  and  the  South  generally,  funeral  bells  should 
be  tolled,  meetings  of  sympathy  held,  as  at  the  death  of  some 
great  public  benefactor,  and  the  person  who  had  plotted  to 


Edward  Everett. 


put  a  pike  or  a  rifle  in  the  hands  of  twenty-five  hundred  men, 
to  be  used  against  their  fellows,  inhabitants  of  the  same  town, 
inmates  of  the  same  houses,  with  an  ulterior  intention  and 
purpose  of  wrapping  the  whole  community  in  a  civil  war  of 
the  deadliest  and  bloodiest  type,  in  which  a  man's  foe  should 
be  those  of  his  own  household ;  suppose,  I  say,  that  the  per- 
son who  planned  and  plotted  this,  and  with  his  own  hand,  or 
that  of  his  associates  acting  by  his  command,  had  taken  the 
lives  of  several  feliow-beings,  should  be  extolled,  canonized, 
placed  on  a  level  with  the  great  heroes  of  humanity,  nay, 
assimilated  to  the  Saviour  of  mankind ;  and  all  this  not  the 
effect  of  a  solitary,  individual  impulse,  but  the  ripe  fruit  of  a 
systematic  agitation  pursued  in  the  South,  unrebuked,  for 
years !  What,  Sir,  should  we  feel,  think,  say,  under  such  a 
state  ofthings  ?  Should  we  weigh  every  phrase  of  indignant 
remonstrance  with  critical  accuracy,  and  divide  our  murmurs 
with  nice  discrimination  among  those  whom  we  might  believe, 
however  unjustly,  to  be  directly  or  indirectly  concerned  in  the 
murderous  aggression  ? 

Mr.  Chairman,  those  who  look  upon  the  existing  excite- 
ment at  the  South  as  factitious  or  extravagant,  have,  I  fear, 
formed  a  very  inadequate  idea  of  the  nature  of  such  an  at- 
tempt as  that  which  was  made  at  Harper's  Fei'ry  was  intend- 
ed to  be,  and  would  have  been,  had  it  proved  successful. .  It 
is  to  want  of  reflection  on  this  point  that  we  must  ascribe  the 
fact,  that  any  civilized  man  in  his  right  mind,  and  still  more 
any  man  of  intelligence  and  moral  discernment,  in  other 
respects,  can  be  found  to  approve  and  sympathize  with  it.  I 
am  sure  if  such  persons  will  bring  home  to  their  minds,  in 
any  distinct  conception,  the  real  nature  of  the  undertaking, 
they  would  be  themselves  amazed  that  they  had  ever  given 
it  their  sympathy.  It  appears  from  his  own  statements  and 
those  of  his  deluded  associates,  of  his  biographer,  and  of  his 
wretched  wife,  that  the  unhappy  man  Avho  has  just  paid  the 
forfeit  of  his  life,  had  for  years  meditated  a  general  insurrec- 
21* 


246 


Edward  Everett. 


tion  in  the  Southern  States ;  that  he  thought  the  time  had 
now  come  to  effect  it ;  that  the  slaves  were  ready  to  rise,  and 
the  non-slaveholding  whites  to  join  them;  and  both  united 
were  prepared  to  form  a  new  Commonwealth,  of  which  the 
constitution  was  organized,  and  the  officers  chosen.  With 
this  wild,  but  thoroughly  matured  plan,  he  provides  weapons 
for  those  on  whose  rising  he  calculated  at  Harper's  Ferry ; 
he  seizes  the  National  Arsenal,  where  there  was  a  supply  of 
arms  for  a  hundred  thousand  men ;  and  he  intended,  if  una- 
ble to  maintain  himself  at  once  in  the  open  country,  to  retreat 
to  the  mountains,  and  from  their  fastnesses,  harass,  paralyze, 
and  at  length  revolutionize  the  South.  To  talk  of  the  pikes 
and  rifles  not  being  intended  for  offensive  purposes,  is  simply 
absurd.  The  first  act  almost  of  the  party  was  to  shoot  down 
a  free  colored  man,  whom  they  were  attempting  to  impress, 
and  who  fled  from  them.  One  might  as  well  say  that  the 
rifled  ordnance  of  Louis  Napoleon  was  intended  only  for  self- 
defence,  not  to  be  used  unless  the  Austrians  should  undertake 
to  arrest  his  march. 

No,  sir,  it  was  an  attempt  to  do  on  a  vast  scale  what  was 
done  in  St.  Domingo  in  1791,  where  the  colored  population 
was  about  equal  to  that  of  Virginia ;  and  if  any  one  would 
form  a  distinct  idea  what  such  an  operation  is,  let  him  see  it 
—  not  as  a  matter  of  vague  conception  • —  a  crude  project  — 
in  the  mind  of  a  heated  fanatic,  but  as  it  stands  in  the  sober 
pages  of  history,  which  record  the  revolt  in  that  Island ;  the 
midnight  burnings,  the  wholesale  massacres,  the  merciless 
tortures,  the  abominations  not  to  be  named  by  Christisin  lips 
in  the  hearing  of  Christian  ears,  —  some  of  which,  too  unut- 
terably atrocious  for  the  English  language,  are  of  necessity 
veiled  in  the  obscurity  of  the  Latin  tongue.  Allow  me  to 
read  you  a  few  sentences  which  can  be  read  from  the  historian 
of  these  events : 

«'In  the  town  itself,  the  general  belief  for  some  time  Avas,  that  the 
revolt  was  by  no  means  an:  extensive  one,  but  a  sudden  and  partial 


Edward  Everett' 


247 


insurrection  only.  The  largest  sugar  plantation  on  the  plain  -was  that 
of  Mens.  Gallifet,  situated  about  eight  miles  from  the  town,  the  ne- 
groes belonging  to  which  had  always  been  treated  with  such  kindness 
and  liberality,  and  possessed  so  many  advantages,  that  it  became  a 
proverbial  expression  among  the  lower  white  people,  in  speaking  of 
any  man's  good  fortune,  to  say,  II  est  keureux  comme  wi  iiegre  de  Galli- 
fet, (He  is  happy  as  one  of  M.  Gallifet's  negroes.)  M.  Odeluc,  an 
attorney,  or  agent,  for  this  plantation,  was  a  member  of  the  General 
Assembly,  and  being  fully  persuaded  that  the  negroes  belonging  to  it 
would  remain  firm  in  their  obedience,  determined  to  repair  thither  to 
encourage  them  in  opposing  the  insurgents ;  to  which  end  he  desired 
the  assistance  of  a  few  soldiers  &om  the  town  guard,  which  was 
granted  him.  He  proceeded  accordingly,  but  on  approaching  the 
estate,  to  his  surprise  and  grief,  he  found  all  the  negroes  in  arms  on 
the  side  of  the  rebels,  and  (horrid  to  tell)  tlieir  standard  was  tJie  body 
of  a  ichite  vifant,  which  they  had  recetitly  impaled  on  a  stake  !  Mr.  Ode- 
luc had  advanced  too  far  to  retreat  vmdiscovered,  and  both  he  and  a 
friend  who  had  accompanied  him,  -with  most  of  the  soldiers,  -were 
killed  "without  mercy.  Two  or  three  only  of  the  patrol  escaped  by 
flight,  and  conveyed  the  dreadful  tidings  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town. 

«'  By  this  time,  all  or  most  of  the  white  persons  who  had  been  foxmd 
on  the  several  plantations,  being  massacred  or  forced  to  seek  their 
safety  in  flight,  the  ruffians  exchanged  the  sword  for  the  torch.  The 
buildings  and  cane-fields  were  every  where  set  on  fire ;  and  the  con- 
flagrations, -which  -were  visible  from  the  town,  in  a  thousand  different 
quarters,  furnished  a  prospect  more  shocking,  and  reflections  more 
dismal,  than  fancy  can  paint,  or  the  powers  of  man  describe." 

Such,  sir,  as  a  matter  of  history,  is  a  servile  insurrection. 
Now  let  us  cast  a  glance  at  the  state  of  things  in  the  South- 
orn  States,  co-members  as  they  are  with  us  in  this 'great 
republican  confederacy.  Let  us  consider  over  what  sort  of  a 
population  it  is,  that  some  persons  among  us  think  it  not  only 
right  and  commendable,  but  in  the  highest  degree  heroic, 
saint-like,  god-like,  to  extend  the  awful  calamity,  which 
turned  St.  Domingo  into  a  heap  of  bloody  ashes  in  1791, 
There  are  between  three  and  four  millions  of  the  colored  race 
scattered  through  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States,  in 
small  groups,  in  cities,  towns,  villages,  and  in  larger  bod^3 


248 


"Edward  Everett. 


on  isolated  plantations;  in  the  house,  the  factory,  and  the 
field ;  mingled  together  with  the  dominant  race  in  the  various 
pursuits  of  life ;  the  latter  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  eight 
or  nine  millions,  if  I  rightly  recollect  the  numbers.  Upon 
this  community,  thus  composed,  it  was  the  design  of  Brown 
to  let  loose  the  helf-hounds  of  a  servile  insurrection,  and  to 
bring  on  a  struggle  which  for  magnitude,  atrocity,  and  horror, 
would  have  stood  alone  in  the  history  of  the  world.  And 
these  eight  or  nine  millions,  against  whom  this  frightful  war 
was  levied,  are  our  fellow-citizens,  entitled  with  us  to  the 
protection  of  that  compact  of  government  which  recognizes 
their  relation  to  the  colored  race, —  a  compact  which  every 
sworn  officer  of  the  Union  or  of  the  States  is  bound  by  his 
oath  to  support !  Among  them,  sir,  is  a  fair  proportion  of  men 
and  women  of  education  and  culture,  —  of  moral  and  religious 
lives  and  characters,  —  virtuous  fathers,  mothers,  sons  and 
daughters,  persons  who  would  adorn  any  station  of  society,  in 
any  country,  —  men  who  read  the  same  Bible  that  we  do,  and 
in  the  name  of  the  same  Master,  kneel  at  the  tin-one  of  the 
same  God,  —  forming  a  class  of  men  from  which  have  gone 
forth  some  of  the  greatest  and  purest  characters  which  adorn 
our  history, — AVashington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Mar- 
shall, in  the  single  State  of  Virginia,  against  which  the  first 
blow  has  been  struck.  These  are  the  men,  the  women,  for 
whose  bosoms  pikes  and  rifles  are  manufactured  in  New  Eng- 
land, to  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  an  ignorant  subject  race, 
supposed,  most  wrongfully,  as  recent  events  have  shown,  to 
be  waiting  only  for;  an  opportunity  to  use  them ! 

Sir,  I  liuve  on  three  or  four  . different  occasions  in  early  life, 
and  more  recently,  visited  all  the  Southern  and  Southwestern 
States,  with  the  exception  of  Arkansas  and  Alabama.  I  have 
enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  the  city  and  the  country ;  and  I 
have  had  the  privilege,  before  crowded  and  favoring  audi- 
ences, to  hold  up  the  character  of  the  Father  of  his  Country, 
a^d  to  inculcate  the  blessings  of  the  Union,  in  the  same 


Edward  Everett. 


precise  terms  in  which  I  have  done  it  here  at  home,  and  in 
the  other  portions  of  the  land.  I  have  been  admitted  to  the 
confidence  of  the  domestic  circle,  and  I  have  seen  there  touch- 
ing manifestations  of  the  kindest  feelings,  by  which  that  circle^ 
in  all  its  members,  high  and  low,  master  and  servant,  can  be 
bound  together;  and  when  I  contemplate  the  horrors  that 
would  have  ensued  had  the  tragedy  on  which  the  curtain 
rose  at  Harper's  Ferry  been  acted  out,  through  all  its  scenes 
of  fire  and  sword,  of  lust  and  murder,  of  rapine  and  desolation, 
to  the  -nnal  catastrophe,  I  am  filled  with  emotions  to  which  no 
words  can  do  justice.  There  could,  of  course,  be  but  one 
result,  and  that  well  deserving  the  thoughtful  meditation  of 
those-,  if  any  such  there  be,  who  think  that  the  welfare  of  the 
colored  race  could  by  any  possibility  be  promoted  by  the  suc- 
cess of  such  a  movement,  and  who  are  willing  to  purchase 
that  result  by  so  costly  a  sacrifice.  The  colored  population 
of  St.  Domingo  amounted  to  but  little  short  of  half  a  million, 
while  the  whites  amounted  to  only  thirty  thousand.  The 
white  population  of  the  Southern  States  alone,  in  the  aggre- 
gate, outnumbers  the  colored  race  in  the  ratio  of  two  to  one ; 
in  the  Union  at  large,  in  the  ratio  of  seven  to  one ;  and  if 
(which  Heaven  avert)  they  should  be  brought  into  conflict* 
it  could  end  only  in  the  extermination  of  the  latter,  after 
scenes  of  woe  for  which  language  is  too  faint,  and  for  which 
the  liveliest  fancy  has  no  adequate  images  of  horror. 

Such  being  the  case,  some  one  may  ask,  Why  does  notsthe 
South  fortify  herself  against  the  possible  occurrence  of  such  a 
catastrophe,  by  doing  away  with  the  one  great  source  from 
which  alone  it  can  spring?  This  is  a  question  easily  asked, 
and  I  am  not  aware  that  it  is  our  duty  at  the  North  to  answer 
it ;  but  it  may  be  observed  that  great  and  radical  changes  in 
the  framework  of  society,  involving  the  relations  of  twelve 
millions  of  men,  will  not  wait  on  the  bidding  of  an  impatient 
philanthropy.  They  can  only  be  brought  about  in  the  lapse 
of  time,  by  the  steady  operation  of  physical,  economical,  and 


250 


Edward  Everett. 


moral  causes.  Have  those  who  rebuke  the  South  for  the 
continuance  of  Slavery  considered  that  neither  the  present 
generation  nor  the  preceding  one  is  responsible  for  its  exist- 
ence? The  African  slave  ti-ade  was  prohibited  by  Act  of 
'  Congress  fifty-one  years  ago,  and  many  years  earlier  by  the 
separate  Southern  States.  The  entire  colored  population, 
with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  a  few  hundred  surreptitiously 
introduced,  is  native  to  the  soil.  Their  ancestors  were  con- 
veyed from  Africa  in  the  ships  of  Old  England  and  New 
England.  They  now  number  between  three  and  four  mil- 
lions. Has  any  person,  of  any  party  or  opinion,  proposed,  in 
sober  earnest,  a  practical  method  of  wholesale  emancipation  ? 
I  believe  most  persons,  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  are  of 
opinion  that  free  labor  is  steadily  gaining  ground.  It  would, 
in  my  judgment,  have  already  prevailed  in  the  two  northern 
tiers  of  the  Slaveholding  States,  had  its  advances  not  been 
unhappily  retarded  by  the  irritating  agitations  of  the  day. 
But  has  any  person,  whose  opinion  is  entitled  to  ,the  slightest 
respect,  ever  undertaken  to  sketch  out  the  details  of  a  plan 
for  effecting  the  change  at  once,  by  any  legislative  measure 
that  could  be  adopted  ?  Consider  only,  I  pray  you,  that  it 
would  be  to  ask  the  South  to  give  up  one  thousand  millions 
of  property,  which  she  holds  by  a  title  satisfactory  to  herself, 
as  the  first  step.  Then  estimate  the  cost  of  an  adequate  out- 
fit for  the  self-support  of  the  emancipated  millions ;  then  re- 
flect on  the  derangement  of  the  entire  industrial  system  of  the 
South,  and  all  the  branches  of  commerce  and  manufactures 
that  depend  on  its  great  staples ;  then  the  necessity  of  con- 
ferring equal  political  privileges  on  the  emancipated  race, 
who,  being  free,  would  be  content  with  nothing  less,  if  any 
thing  less  were  consistent  with  our  political  system  ;  then  the 
consequent  organization  of  two  great  political  parties  on  the 
basis  of  color,  and  the  eternal  feud  which  would  rage  between 
them ;  and  finally,  the  overflow  into  the  Free  States  of  a  vast 
multitude  of  needy  and  helpless  emigrants,  who,  being  exclud- 


Edward  Everett. 


ed  from  many  of  them,  would  prove  doubly  burdensome  where 
they  are  admitted.  Should  we,  sir,  with  all  our  sympathy  for 
the  colored  race,  (and  I  do  sincerely  sympathize  with  them, 
and  to  all  whom  chance  throws  in  my  way  I  have  through 
life  extended  all  the  relief  and  assistance  in  ray  power,)  give 
a  very  cordial  reception  to  two  or  three  hundred  thousand 
destitute  emancipated  slaves  ?  Does  not  every  candid  man 
see  that  every  one  of  these  steps  presents  difficulties  of  the 
most  formidable  character,  —  difficulties  for  which,  as  far  as  I 
know,  no  man  and  no  party  has  proposed  a  solution  ? 

And  is  it,  sir,  for  the  attainment  of  objects  so  manifestly 
impracticable,  pursued,  too,  by  the  bloody  pathways  of  treason 
and  murder,  that  we  will  allow  the  stupendous  evil  which 
now  threatens  us  to  come  upon  the  country  ?  Shall  we  per- 
mit this  curiously  compacted  body  politic,  the  nicest  adjust- 
ment of  human  wisdom,  to  go  to  pieces  ?  Will  we  blast  this 
beautiful  symmetric  form,  paralyze  this  powerful  arm  of  pub- 
lic strength,  smite  with  imbecility  this  great  National  Intel- 
lect ?  Where,  sir,  O  where  will  be  the  flag  of  the  United 
States?  Where  our  rapidly  increasing  influence  in  the  fami- 
ly of  nations  ?  Already  they  are  rejoicing  in  our  divisions. 
The  last  foreign  journal  which  I  have  read,  in  commenting 
upon  the  event  at  Harper's  Ferry,  dwells  upon  it  as  some- 
thing that "  will  compel  us  to  keep  the  peace  with  the  powers 
of  Europe ; "  and  that  means,  to  take  the  law  from  them  in 
our  international  relations. 

I  meant  to  have  spoken  of  the  wreck  of  that  magnificent 
and  mutually  beneficial  commercial  intercourse  which  now 
exists  between  the  producing  and  manufacturing  States ;  — 
of  the  hostile  tariffs  in  time  of  peace,  and  the  habitually  re- 
curring border  wars,  by  which  it  will  be  annihilated.  I 
meant  to  have  said  a  word  of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  rich  inheritance  of  its  common  glories.  Shall  we 
give  up  this  ?  The  memory  of  our  Fathers  —  of  those  hap- 
py days  when  the  men  of  the  North  and  So»th  stood  together 


252  Edward  Everett. 


for  the  country  on  hard-fought  fields ;  when  the  South  sent 
her  Washington  to  Massachusetts,  and  New  England  sent 
her  Greene  to  Carolina  —  is  all  this  forgotten  ?  "  Is  all  the 
counsel  that  we  two  have  shared ; "  all  the  joint  labors  to 
found  this  great  Republic ;  —  is  this  "  all  forgot  ?  "  and  will 
we  permit  this  last  great  experiment  of  Confederate  Repub- 
licanism to  become  a  proverb  and  a  by-word  to  the  Nations  ? 
No,  fellow-citizens,  no,  a  thousand  times  no  ^  ■  This  glorious 
Union  shall  not  perish !  Precious  legacy  of  our  Fathers,  it 
shall  go  down,  honored  and  cherished,  to  our  children !  Gen- 
erations unborn  shall  enjoy  its  privileges  as  we  have  done ; 
and  if  we  leave  them  poor  in  all  besides,  we  will  transmit  to 
them  the  boundless  wealth  of  its  blessings  ! 


THE  IMPALED  WHITE  INFANT. 

It  is  singular  that  a  writer  so  familiar  w  ith  the  horrors  of  servile 
Revolutionary  wars,  as  Mr.  Everett  unquestionably  is,  should  not  see 
that  the  more  terrible  the  picture  he  may  draw  of  insurrectionary  atroci- 
ties, the  more  powerful  becomes  the  argument  why  the  jvimal  cause 
of  servile  uprisings  —  that  is,  the  existence  of  Slavery  —  should  be 
every  where  without  compromise,  and  immediately  abolished.  Leav- 
ing his  argument,  however,  to  commit  suicide  unmolested,  it  is  duo  to 
the  character  of  the  negro  race  that  his  historical  statements  should  bo 
criticised.  An  editorial  writer  in  the  Boston  Daili/  Traveller  thus 
commented  on  the  story  of  the  Impaled  "White  Infant : 

«•  Mr.  Everett,  in  his  eloquent  speech  at  the  Faneuil  Hall  Union- 
saving  meeting,  drew  a  most  powerful  picture  of  the  consequences  of 
a  slave  insurrection,  illustrating  his  point  by  citing  the  fact  that,  on  a 
certain  occasion,  in  St.  Domingo,  the  Negroes  had  for  their  standard  a 
■white  infant  on  a  spear,  they  having  previously  impaled  the  child ! 
The  incident  was  an  awful  one,  and  serves  to  show  how  great  an  evil 
is  Slavery,  seeing  that  it  could  debase  human  beings  to  a  condition  in 
■which  it  was  possible  to  perpetrate  so  horrible  a  piece  of  utterly  use- 
less cruelty.   It  reminds  us  of  an  incident  of  the  St.  Bartholomew 


Edward  Everett. 


253 


massacre.  A  child  of  one  of  the  murdered  Protestants  was  taken  up 
by  one  of  the  Catholic  soldiers,  and  smiled  on  the  soldier,  and  put  one 
of  its  little  hands  out  and  stroked  his  long  beard,  which  flowed  far 
down  over  his  breast,  whereupon  the  soldier  drove  his  dagger  through 
the  child's  body,  and  carried  it  about  on  the  weapon  !  This  was  done, 
not  by  a  suddenly  liberated  slave  in  Hayti,  but  by  one  of,the  followers 
of  the  Valois  or  the  Guises  in  chivalrous  France.  There  wasn't  a 
'nigger'  in  the  whole  lot,  slayers  or  slain,  that  'did'  the  St.  Barthol- 
omew. Had  the  Reformation  never  occurred,  and  had  the  French 
Protestants  remained  quiet,  this  incident  never  could  have  happened. 
Perhaps  the  reader  may  have  heard  of  the  massacre  of  the  infants  of 
Bethlehem,  by  order  of  Herod  the  Great,  M'hich  order  that  monarch 
issued  in  the  hope  of  involving  the  infant  Saviour  in  the  general  mas- 
sacre ;  and  if  the  Saviour  had  not  been  born  at  that  time,  the  order 
would  not  have  been  issued.  There  wasn't  a  'nigger'  in  that  lot 
either,  Herod  being  descended  from  Esau,  while  his  victims  were 
descended  from  Jacob,  and  the  active  murderers  were  mercenaries  of 
European  or  Asiatic  origin.  It  may  be  that  the  reader  recollects  the 
massacre  of  the  Protestants  in  Savoy,  when  the  Catholics,  as  Milton 
says  in  his  18th  Sonnet,  '  rolled  mother  with  infant  down  the  rocks.' 
There,  too,  we  grieve  to  say,  the  '  nigger '  kept  himself  most  reprehen- 
sibly  absent.  Then  there  was  the  French  Terror  time,  when  infants 
were  torn  from  their  mothers'  breasts,  and  thrown  from  pike  to  pike, 
in  the  hands,  not  of  '  niggers '  in  Hayti,  but  of  white  men  in  the 
plaisant  pays  de  France.  The  treatment  of  the  Dauphin,  a  little  boy, 
was  inexpressibly  shocking ;  and  it  Avas  the  work  of  white  men,  who 
acted  under  the  orders  of  persons  of  education  and  good  social  rank. 
The  infant  who  was  torn  from  its  mother's  breast,  at  which  it  was  in 
the  act  of  nursing  at  the  moment,  in  order  that  that  mother  might  be 
hanged  up  on  Tyburn  tree,  was  not  torn  away  by  black  hands,  the 
hellish  deed  being  done  when  Mansfield  was  at  the  head  of  English 
law,  and  George  the  Third  was  king.  When  little  children  were  killed 
at  Delhi,  and  Cawnporc,  and  elsewhere,  in  1857,  there  was  not  a 
•  nigger '  concerned  in  the  butcheries.  The  men  who  sold  '  the  tawny 
little  pr'nce '  into  tropical  slavery,  —  King  Philip's  son,  and  grandson 
of  that  Massasoit  who  welcomed  the  Pilgrims  to  New  England,  and 
the  last  of  that  aboriginal  royal  race,  —  were  our  ancestors  ;  and  Mr. 
Everett  has  depicted  their  conduct  in  words  that  will  endure  and  be 
admired  as  long  as  humanity  shall  exist  on  earth.  If  Ave  cast  no  stones 
until  an  innocent  race  shall  be  found,  there  will  be  as  little  of  lapida- 
tion  now  as  there  was  in  Palestine,  on  a  certain  occasion,  in  the  days 
of  long  ago." 

A  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Daily  Transcript  thus  disposes  of 
M.  Gallifet's  happy  Negroes  : 

"  3ilr.  Everett,  in  his  speech  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Dec.  8th,  requested 
leave  to  read  a  few  sentences  from  the  historian  of  the  Revolution  of 
St.  Domingo.   He  read  the  following  paragraph : 

♦  The  largest  sugnr  plantation  on  tlie  plain  was  M.  Gnllifet's,  situated  eight  miles 
from  the  town,  the  Negroes  belonging  to  which  had  always  been  ti-eatcd  with  such 
liinduesa  and  liberality,  and  possessed  so  many  advantages,  that  it  became  a  proverbial 

22 


254 


Edward  Everett. 


ezpressiou  among  the  lower  white  people  In  speaking  of  any  man's  goo<l  fortune,  to 
Bay,  "  11  est  heureux  comme  un  negre  rfe  GMifet,"  (he  is  as  liappy  as  one  of  Gulllfet'a 
Negroes.') 

Mr.  Everett  then  tells  the  story  of  the  -white  infant  on  the  stake. 
It  appears  to  me  that  the  orator  could  not  have  heen  more  unhappy  in 
his  selection,  and  that  he  has  wholly  mistaken  the  true  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  •  U  est  heureux  comme  un  negre  de  GalUfet'  The  actual  truth 
is,  that  the  slaves  of  Gallifet  were  subjected  to  the  most  dreadful  tor- 
tures. In  order  to  force  the  largest  amount  of  work  from  them,  every 
species  of  cruelty  was  used,  —  whips,  thiunb-screws,  racks,  &c.  I  was 
told,  in  conversation  last  evening,  by  a  lady  who  resided  some  time  in 
St.  Domingo,  that  she  had  visited  the  plantation  of  Gallifet.  Her 
description  of  what  she  saw,  was  this  : 

"  <  From  the  house  a  thick  wall  of  stone  ran  for  some  distance.  At  intervals  in  this 
wall,  dungeons  of  only  sufficient  size  to  admit  the  body  of  one  human  being,  -n-ore 
constructed.  They  were  partly  underground,  and  in  wet  weather  were  partly  filled 
with  mud  and  water.  In  these  dnngeons,  refractory  or  other  slaves  were  placed,  the 
front  was  then  bricked  up,  and  the  wretched  prisoners  left  to  die  of  starvation.  It  was 
in  summer  when  I  was  there,  and  of  course  the  ground  was  dry.  By  stooping  dowii 
and  brushing  away  the  grass,  I  was  able  to  look  Into  these  dnngeons.  I  reached  my 
hand  in,  and  took  out  parts  of  chains.  The  bodies  of  those  who  bad  been  confined  there 
had  perished  away,  and  nothing  but  the  irons  remained.' 

«•  It  was  in  view  of  these  terrible  cruelties  that  the  ironical  saying 
arose.  When  any  one  wished  to  express  the  lowest  condition  that 
any  one  could  attain,  he  said,  *  II  est  heureux  comme  tin  negre  de  Galli- 
fet,' heureux  not  being  used  in  the  sense  of  happy,  but  '  lucky.'  Mr. 
Everett's  impaled  infant  does  not  look  so  horrible  in  this  light. 

•«  Again,  Mr.  Everett  should  have  mentioned  that  on  the  very  day 
when  the  insurrection  broke  out,  the  principal  white  inhabitants  were 
assembled  at  Cap,  in  open  rebellion  against  the  government  of  France, 
and  decided  to  ofiTer  the  island  to  England.  It  was  this  which  gave 
the  Negroes  the  opportunity  to  rise.  The  whites  were  clearly  respon- 
sible for  the  impaled  infant.  What  caused  the  rebellion  of  the  whites 
against  the  French  government  ?  When  the  French  Revolution  broke 
out,  the  free  mulattoes  supposed  that  they  were  to  have  equal  repre- 
sentation with  the  whites.  This  the  whites  denied,  and  miirdered  with 
horrid  cruelties  Vincent  Og6  and  his  brother.  The  impaled  infant 
again !  Itis  time  the  impaling  was  done  by  the  whites  to  grown 
men.  The  cruelties  iniiicted  on  Vincent  Og6  interested  many  influ- 
ential persons  in  Paris  in  the  cause  of  the  mulattoes.  The  Abbe 
Gregoire  pleaded  for  them  in  the  National  Assembly,  and  on  the  loth 
of  March  was  passed  the  celebrated  decree  which  gave  the  mulattoes 
the  rights  of  French  citizens,  —  of  suffrage,  and  to  seats  in  the  paro- 
chial and  colonii\l  assemblies.  Robespierre  said,  •  Perish  the  colonics, 
rather  than  sacrifice  one  iota  of  our  principles.'  The  meeting  of  the 
whites  to  resist  this  just  decree,  gave  the  Negroes  the  opportunity  to 
imp^e  white  infants  as  the  whites  had  impaled  grown  miUattoes." 

Mr.  Charles  K.  "Whipple,  in  a  letter  to  the  Boston  Atlas  and  Daily 
Bee,  after  quoting  the  historical  extract  read  by  Mr.  Everett,  explains 


Edward  Everett. 


255 


the  origin  of  the  proverbial  expression  among  the  lower  white  people, 
in  speaking  of  any  man's  good  fortune  ; 

««I  wish,  first,  to  inquire  into  some  details  of  the  'happy'  condition 
of  M.  Gallifet's  Negroes,  and  into  the  probable  reasons  M-hy  M.  Odeluc, 
the  agent  of  that  worthy  man,  and  the  personal  administrator  of  such 
'happiness'  as  his  Negroes  cnjoj'ed,  'desired  the  aaxistance  of  a  few  sol' 
diers  from  the  town  gitard'  before  he  approached  them.  Fortunately, 
the  nieans  are  at  hand. 

"I  have  before  me  a  pamphlet  of  ninety-sLx  pages,  printed  at  Cape 
Henry,  St.  Domingo,  in  October,  1814,  dedicated  to  King  Henri  I., 
(who  is  known  to  us  only  by  his  surname,  Christophe,)  and  written 
by  Baron  De  Vastey,  entitled  'Le  Systeme  Colonial  Devoile,'  (The 
Colonial  System  Unveiled.)  It  gives  an  account  of  the  destruction  of 
the  original  Haytiens,  of  the  origin  and  horrors  of  the  African  Slave 
Trade,  and  of  those  frightful  cruelties,  systematically  perpetrated  under 
Slavery,  which  led  to  the  massacre  of  the  slaveholders.  The  writer 
understands  the  importance  of  giving  details,  and  he  specifies  the 
names  and  the  individual  acts  of  some  of  those  planters  and  agents 
who  were  most  distinguished,  at  the  time  of  the  insurrection,  for  hid- 
eous and  atrocious  cruelty  to  their  slaves.  Strange  to  say,  these  dread- 
ful narrations  are  made  in  sorrow,  not  in  anger.  Strange  also,  (to 
those  who  have  depended  on  the  honor  and  veracity  of  Mr.  Everett,) 
the  names  of  his  chosen  representatives  of  the  humanity  —  let  me  be 
accurate,  the  '  kindness  and  liberality '  of  slaveholders  —  Gallifet,  the 
proprietor,  and  Odeluc,  his  agent,  appear  in  this  list,  as  follows  : 

'"Gallifet  and  Montallbor  doefroyed  their  unfortunate  blaclcs  by  the  most  horrible 
sufTerings,  under  the  scourge,  and  in  miry  dungeons,  where  the  victims  perished,  their 
bodies  lying  continually  iu  water.  Gallifet  was  uccustonied  to  cut  the  hnm-strlngs  of 
his  slaves. 

" '  After  the  terrible  quatre  piquet,  (the  punishment  called  the  four  staket,  to  be 
deFcribed  hereafter,)  Odeluc,  agent  of  Gallifet,  caused  brine  to  bo  poured  upon  the 
bleeding  bodies  of  his  victims,  with  Cayenne  pepper,  and  other  acrimonious  sab. 
stances.'  —  p.  44. 

"After  describing  (p.  64)  a  variety  of  kinds  of  dungeons  horribly 
adapted  to  inflict  suffering,  the  writer  continues : 

" '  other  dungeons  were  mado  in  muddy  place?,  (such  were  those  of  Gallifet,  Mon- 
talibor,  Milot,  Latour  Duroc,  and  almost  upon  all  the  residences  of  the  great  planters,) 
whore  the  victims  perished  lying  in  water,  by  a  cold  and  dampness  which  suppressed 
the  circulation  of  the  blood;  besides  these  frightful  dungeons,  there  were  a  thousand 
varied  instruments  of  torture  invented  by  the  ferocity  of  the  colonists,  bars,  euormons 
Iron  collars  with  projecting  branches,  tliumh-scrcws,  hand-cuffs,  mufiSers,  Iron  masbs, 
chains,  &c.  Ah,  why,  great  God  t  was  all  this  apparatus  of  death  and  agony  reserved 
for  innocent  victims,  who  fell  on  their  knees  at  tho  least  sIgnT  Finally,  the  terrible 
qttatre piquet,  which  was  always  ready  in  the  plantations,  the  towns  and  villages;  tho 
victim  was  fastened  to  it  by  the  four  limbs,  the  middle  of  the  body  being  Icept  firm  by 
a  band  which  prevented  him  from  moving;  others  extended  the  snlforcr  upon  a  ladder 
well  supported  by  ropes,  while  two  executioners,  (relieved  by  two  others  when  they 
Wbre  weary,)  by  lashes  a  hundred  times  repeated,  lacerated  and  mangled  tho  body  of 
tho  wretched  one.' — pp.  64,  65. 


256 


Edward  Everett. 


"  'TUe  ruins  of  these  frightful  dungeons  (which  have  heen  demolished  by  order  of 
the  government)  still  exist  on  these  plantiitiona  ;  those  who  doubt  can  come  and  sea 
them.' — p.  64,  note. 

"  We  see  nowwhat  must  have  been  the  meaning  of  the  fearfully 
sarcastic  pioverbial  expression,  '  As  happy  as  a  slave  of  Gallifet ! ' 

«« Did  Mr.  Everett  Imow  the  terrible  significant  facts  which  I  have 
quoted,  and  the  real  meaning  of  the  proverb  in  question  ?  AVho  can 
tell  ?  We  know  the  extent  of  his  knowledge,  and  the  persevering 
industry  with  which  he  searches  out  facts,  when  the  facts  are  on  his 
aide.  But  so  much  as  this  it  is  safe  to  say ;  even  if  Mr.  Everett  had 
read  the  pamphlet  in  question,  and  had  uttered  his  praise  of  Gallifet 
and  Odeluc  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  directly  and  frightfully 
antagonistic  facts,  —  even  then  he  would  not  have  told  a  more  delib- 
erate and  absolute  lie  than  when  he  said,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
above  extract  from  his  speech,  that  John  Brown's  enterprise  '  was  an 
attempt  to  do  on  a  vast  scale  whet  was  done  in  St.  Domingo  in  1791.' " 


n. 


Sermon  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher* 


iHIS  is  a  terrible  message.    It  was  God's  word  of  old  by 
the  mouth  of  his  prophet  Jeremiah.    The  occasion  of  it 


was  a  sudden  irruption  upon  Judah  of  victorious  enemies.  God 
sent  the  prophet  to  reveal  the  cause  of  this  disaster.  The 
prophet  declared  that  God  was  punishing  them  because  they 
were  selfish,  and  unjust,  and  covetous,  and  because  the  whole 
Church  was  whelmed,  with  its  ministry,  in  the  same  sins. 
These  mischiefs  had  been  glossed  over,  and  excused,  and  pal- 
liated, and  hidden,  and  not  healed.  There  had  been  a  spirit 
that  demanded  union  and  quiet,  rather  than  purity  and  safety. 
God,  therefore,  threatens  further  afflictions,  because  of  the 
hardness  of  their  hearts;  and  then,  —  for  such  always  is  the 
Divine  lenity,  —  as  it  were,  giving  them  another  opportunity 
and  alternative,  he  commands  them  to  seek  after  God;  to 

*  Preached  at  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn;  on  Sunday  evening,  October  30, 1'59, 
from  Jeremiah  vi.  12-19 : 

"  For  I  will  stretch  oiifc  my  hand  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  saith  the  Lord; 
for  from  the  least  of  them  even  unto  the  greatest  of  them,  every  one  is  given  to  covct- 
ousncRS ;  and  from  the  prophet  even  unto  the  priest,  every  one  dealeth  falscl^'.  They 
have  healed  also  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my  people  slightly,  saying,  Peace,  pwicc, 
when  there  is  no  peace.  Were  they  ashamed  v  '.-n  they  had  committed  aboniiiialion  7 
nay,  they  were  not  at  all  ashamed,  neither  could  they  blush;  therefore  they  shall  fitll 
among  them  that  fall ;  at  the  time  that  I  >:<>i^  them,  they  shall  bo  cast  down,  siiith 
the  Lord.  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Stand  ye  in  the  ways,  and  see,  and  itsic  for  tiie  old 
paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls. 
But  they  said,  M'e  will  not  walk  therein.  Also  I  set  watchmen  over  you,  saying, 
Hearken  to  the  sound  of  the  trumpet.  But  they  said,  We  will  not  hearken.  ThiTo- 
fore  hear,  ye  nations,  and  know,  O  congregation,  what  is  among  tlicin.  Hear,  0 
earth ;  behold,  I  will  bring  evil  upon  this  people,  even  the  fruit  of  their  thoughts,  bo. 
oansa  they  have  not  hearkened  uatomy  words,  nor  to  my  law,  but  rejected  it." 

22*  (257) 


258 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


look  for  A  BETTER  WAY;  to  Stand  and  search  for  the  old 
way,  the  right  way,  and  to  walk  in  it ! 

I  need  not  stop  to  point  out  the  remarkable  pertinence 
which  these  things  have,  in  many  respects,  to  our  nation  in 
the  past,  and  to  our  times  in  the  present.  I  avail  myself,  this 
evening,  after  a  long  silence  upon  this  subject,  in  your  midst, 
of  the  state  of  the  public  mind,  to  utter  some  words  of  instruc- 
tion on  the  present  state  of  our  land. 

The  surprise  of  the  whole  nation,  at  a  recent  event,  is 
itself  the  best  evidence  of  the  isolation  of  that  event.  A 
burning  fragment  struck  the  earth  near  Harper's  Ferry 
If  the  fragment  of  an  exploding  aerolite  had  fallen  down 
out  of  the  air,  while  the  meteor  swept  on,  it  would  not  have 
been  more  sudden,  or  less  apparently  connected  either  with 
a  cause  or  an  eflPect! 

Seventeen  men,  white  men,  without  a  military  base,  with- 
out supplies,  without  artillery,  without  organization  more  than 
a  squad  of  militia,  attacked  a  State,  and  undertook  to  release 
and  lead  away  an  enslaved  race !  They  do  not  aj)pear  to 
have  been  called  by  the  sufferers,  nor  to  have  been  welcomed 
by  them.  They  volunteered  a  grace,  and  sought  to  enforce 
its  acceptance.  Seventeen  white  men  surrounded  two  thou- 
sand, and  held  them  in  duress.  They  barricaded  themselves, 
and  waited  until  the  troops  of  two  States,  the  employees  of  a 
great  railway,  and  a  portion  of  the  forces  of  the  Federal 
Government  could,  travelling  briskly  night  and  day,  reach 
them.    Then,  at  one  dash,  they  were  snuffed  out ! 

I  do  not  wonder  that  Virginians  feel  a  great  deal  of  mor- 
tification !  Every  body  is  sympathetically  ashamed  for  them ! 
It  is  quite  natural  that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  enlarge 
the  proportions  of  this  escapade,  that  they  may  hide  their 
weakness  and  incompetency  behind  a  smartly  upblown  hor- 
ror !  No  one  doubts  the  bravery  of  Virginians.  It  needs  no 
praising.  But  even  brave  men  have  panics.  Courage  is 
sometimes  caught  at  unawares.    Certainly,  it  strikes  us,  at  a 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


259 


distance,  as  a  remarkable  thing,  that  prisoners  three  to  one 
more  than  their  captors,  and  two  thousand  citizens,  should 
have  remained  days  and  iiights  under  the  fear  and  control  of 
seventeen  white  men.  Northern  courage  has  been  at  a  dis- 
count in  the  South  hitherto.  It  ought  hereafter  to  rise  in 
value  —  at  least  in  Virginia. 

The  diligence  which  is  now  shown,  on  the  part  of  many- 
public  presses,  to  inflame  the  public  mind,  and  infect  it  with 
fear,  is  quite  foolish.  The  inoculation  will  not  take.  The 
North  may  not  be  courageous,  but  it  certainly  is  not  silly. 
There  is  an  element  of  the  ludicrous  in  this  transaction  which 
I  think  will  efToctually  stop  all  panic. 

Seventeen  men  terrified  two  thousand  brave  Virginians 
into  two  days'  submission  —  that  cannot  be  got  over !  The 
common  sense  of  common  people  will  not  fail  to  see  through 
all  attempts  lo  hide  a  natural  shame  by  a  bungling  make- 
believe  that  the  danger  was  really  greater  than  it  was !  The 
danger  was  nothing,  and  the  fear  very  great,  and  the  courage 
none  at  all.  And  nothing  can  now  change  the  facts !  All 
the  newspapers  on  earth  will  not  make  this  case  appear  any 
better.  Do  what  you  please ;  muster  a  crowd  of  supposed 
confederates,  call  the  roll  of  conspirators,  and  include  the 
noblest  men  in  these  States,  and  exhibit  this  imaginary  army 
before  the  people,  and  in  the  end  it  will  appear  that  seventeen 
white  men  overawed  a  town  of  two  thousand  brave  Virgini- 
ans, and  held  them  captives  until  the  sun  had  gone,  laughing, 
twice  round  the  globe  ! 

And  the  attempt  to  hide  the  fear  of  these  surrounded  men 
by  awaking  a  larger  fear,  will  never  do.  It  is  too  literal  a 
fulfilment,  not  exactly  of  Prophecy,  but  of  Fable  —  not  of 
Isaiah,  but  ^sop. 

A  fox,  having  been  caught  in  a  trap,  escaped  with  the  loss 
of  his  tail.  He  immediately  went  to  his  brother  foxes  to  per- 
suade them  that  they  would  all  look  better  if  they,  too,  would 
cut  off  their  caudal  appendages.   They  declined.    And  our 


26o  Henry  Ward  Bcecher. 


two  thousand  friends,  who  lost  their  courage  in  the  presence 
of  seventeen  men,  are  now  making  an  appeal  to  this  nation  to 
lose  its  courage  too,  that  the  cowardice  of  the  few  may  be 
hidden  in  the  cowardice  of  the  whole  community !  It  is  im- 
possible.  We  choose  to  wear  our  courage  for  some  time 
longer. 

As  I  shall  not  recur  to  this  epic  in  Virginia  history  again 
to-night,  I  must  say  a  word  in  respect  to  the  head  and  heart 
of  it.    For  it  all  stood  in  the  courage  of  one  man. 

An  old  man,  kind  at  heart,  industrious,  peaceful,  went  forth, 
with  a  large  family  of  children,  to  seek  a  new  home  in  Kansas. 
That  infant  colony  held  thousands  of  souls  as  noble  as  liberty 
ever  inspired  or  religion  enriched.  A  great  scowling  Slave 
State,  its  nearest  neighbor,  sought  to  tread  down  this  liberty- 
loving  colony,  and  to  dragoon  Slavery  into  it  by  force  of  arms. 
The  armed  citizens  of  another  State  crossed  the  State  lines, 
destroyed  the  freedom,  of  the  ballot-box,  prevented  a  fair 
expression  of  public  sentiment,  corruptly  usurped  law-making 
power,  and  ordained  by~fraud  laws  as  infamous  as  the  sun 
ever  saw,  assaulted  its  infant  settlement  with  armed  hordes, 
ravaged  the  fields,  destroyed  harvests  and  herds,  and  carried 
death  to  a  multitude  of  cabins.  The  United  States  Govern- 
ment had  no  marines  for  this  occasion  !  No  Federal  troops 
were  posted  by  cars,  night  and  day,  for  the  poor,  the  weak, 
the  grossly-wronged  men  in  Kansas.  There  was  an  army 
there  that  unfurled  the  banner  of  the  Union,  but  it  was  on 
the  side  of  the  wrong  doers,  not  on  the  side  of  the  injured. 

It  was  in^this  field  that  Brown  received  his  impulse.  A 
tender  father,  whose  life  was  in  his  sons'  life,  he  saw  his'first- 
born  seized  like  a  felon,  chained,  driven  acres  5  the  country, 
crazed  by  suffering  and  heat,  beaten  by  the  ofiicer  in  charge, 
like  a  dog,  ard  long  lying  at  death's  door.  Another  noble 
boy,  without  warning,  without  offence,  unarmed,  in  open  day, 
in  the  midst  of  the  city,  was  shot  dead !  No  justice  sought 
out  the  murderers.    No  United  States  Attorney  was  de- 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  261 


spatched  in  hot  haste.  No  marines  or  soldiers  aided  the 
wronged  and  weak ! 

The  shot  that  struck  the  child's  heart,  crazed  the  father's 
brain.  Revolving  his  wrongs,  and  nursing  his  hatred  of  that 
deadly  system  that  breeds  such  cont.erapt  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity, at  length  his  phantoms  assume  a  slender  form,  and 
organize  such  an  enterprise  as  one  might  expect  from  a  man 
whom  grief  had  bereft  of  good  judgment.  He  goes  to  the 
heart  of  a  Slave  State.  One  man  —  and  sixteen  followers  ! 
he  seizes  two  thousand  brave  Virginians  and  holds  them  in 
duress. 

When  a  great  State  attacked  a  handful  of  weak  colonists 
the  government  and  nation  were  torpid,  but  when  seventeen 
men  attacked  a  sovereign  State,  then  Maryland  arms,  and 
Virginia  arms,  and  the  United  States  Government  arms,  and 
they  three  rush  against  seventeen  men ! 

Travellers  tell  us  that  the  Geysers  of  Iceland  —  those  sin- 
gular boiling  springs  of  the  North  —  may  be  transported  with 
fury  by  plucking  up  a  handful  of  grass  or  turf  and  throwing 
them  into  the  springs.  The  hot  springs  of  Virginia  are  of  the 
same  kind !  A  handful  of  men  was  thrown  into  them,  and 
what  a  boiling  there  has  been ! 

But,  meanwhile,  no  one  can  fail  to  see  that  this  poor,  child- 
bereft  old  man  is  the  manliest  of  them  all.  Bold,  unflinching, 
honest,  without  deceit  or  dodge,  refusing  to  take  technical 
advantages  of  any  sort,  but  openly  avowing  his  principles  and 
motives,  glorying  in  them  in  danger  and  death,  as  much  as 
when  in  security  —  that  wounded  old  father  is  the  most 
remarkable  figure  in  this  whole  drama.  The  governor,  the 
officers  of  the  State,  and  all  the  attorneys  are  pygmies  com- 
pared to  him. 

I  deplore  his  misfortunes.  I  sympathize  with  his  sorrows. 
I  mourn  the  hiding  or  obscuration  of  his  reason.  I  disapprove 
of  his  mad  and  feeble  schemes.  I  shrink  from  the  folly  of 
the  bloody  foray,  and  I  shrink,  likewise,  from  all  anticipations 


262  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


of  that  judicial  bloodshed  which,  doubtless,  ere  long,  will  fol- 
low, —  for  w^hen  was  cowardice  ever  magnanimous.  If  they 
kill  the  man  it  will  not  be  so  much  for  treason  as  for  the  dis- 
closure of  their  cowardice. 

Let  no  man  pray  that  Brown  be  spared.  Let  Virginia 
make  him  a  martyr.  Now,  he  has  only  blundered.  His  soul 
was  noble ;  his  work  miserable.  But  a  cord  and  a  gibbet 
would  redeem  all  that,  and  round  up  Brown's  failure  with  a 
heroic  success. 

One  word  more,  and  that  is  as  to  the  insecurity  of  those 
States  that  carry  powder  as  their  chief  cargo.  Do  you  sup- 
pose that  if  tidings  had  come  to  New  York  that  the  United 
States  Armory  in  Springfield  had  been  seized  by  seventeen 
men,  New  Haven,  and  Hartford,  and  Stamford,  and  Worces- 
ter, and  New  York,  and  Boston,  and  Albany,  would  have  been 
thrown  into  a  fever  and  panic  in  consequence  of  the  event? 
We  scarcely  should  have  read  the  papers  to  see  what  became 
of  it !  We  should  have  thought  that  it  was  a  matter  which 
the  Springfield  people  could  manage.  The  thought  of  danger 
would  not  have  entered  into  our  heads.  There  would  not 
have  been  any  danger.  But  in  a  State  wliere  there  is  such 
inflammable  stuff  as  Slavery,  there  is  danger,  and  the  people 
of  the  South  know  it;  and  they  cannot  help  it.  I  do  not 
blame  them  so  much  for  being  afraid  ;  there  is  cause  for  fear 
where  they  have  such  a  population  as  they  have  down  at  the 
bottom  of  society.  But  what  must  be  the  nature  of  State  and 
domestic  institutions  wliich  keep  brave  men  at  the  point  of 
fear  all  their  life  long  ? 

I  do  not  propose,  at  this  time,  to  express  my  opinion  upon 
the  general  subject  of  Slavery.  I  have  elsewhere,  and  often, 
deliberately  uttered  my  testimony.  Reflection  and  experience 
only  confirm  my  judgment  of  its  immeasurable  evils.  It  is 
double-edged  evil,  that  cuts  both  ways,  wounding  master  and 
slave  ;  a  pest  to  good  morals ;  a  consumption  of  the  industrial 
virtues ;  a  burden  upon  society,  in  its  commercial  and  \\  hole 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


263 


economic  arrangements ;  a  political  anomaly,  a  nuisance,  and  a 
cause  of  inevitable  degradation  in  religious  ideas,  feelings,  and 
institutions.  All  other  causes  of  friction,  put  together,  derived 
from  the  weakness  or  the  wickedness  of  men,  are  not  half  so 
mischievous  to  our  land  as  is  this  gigantic  evil. 

But  it  exists  in  our  land,  with  a  broad  spread,  and  a  long- 
continued  hold.  The  extent  of  our  duties  towards  the  slave 
and  towards  the  master,  is  another  and  separate  question. 
Our  views  upon  the  nature  of  Slavery  may  be  right,  and  our 
views  of  our  duty  towards  it  may  be  wrong.  At  this  time  it 
is  peculiarly  necessary  that  all  good  men  should  be  divinely 
led  to  act  with  prudence  and  efficient  wisdom. 

Because  it  is  a  great  sin,  because  it  is  a  national  curse,  it 
does  not  follow  that  we  have  a  right  to  say  any  thing  or  do 
any  thing  that  we  may  happen  to  please.  We  certainly  have 
no  right  to  attack  it  in  any  manner  that  will  gratify  men's 
fancies  or  passions.  It  is  computed  that  there  are  four  mil- 
lion colored  slaves  in  our  nation.  These  dwell  in  fifteen  dif- 
ferent Southern  States,  with  a  population  of  ten  million  whites. 
These  sovereign  States  are  united  to  us,  not  by  any  federal 
ligaments,  but  by  vital  interests,  by  a  common  national  life'. 
And  the  question  of  duty  is  not  simply  what  is  duty  towards 
the  blacks,  not  what  is  duty  towards  the  whites,  but  what  is 
duty  to  each,  and  to  both  united.  I  am  bound  by  the  great 
law  of  love  to  consider  my  duties  towards  the  slave,  and  I  am 
bound  by  the  great  law  of  love  also  to  consider  my  duties 
towards  the  white  man  who  is  his  master !  Both  are  to  be 
treated  with  Christian  wisdom  and  forbearance.  We  must 
seek  to  benefit  the  slave  as  much  as  the  white  man,  and  the 
white  man  as  really  as  the  slave.  We  must  keep  in  mind  the 
interest  of  every  part  —  of  the  slaves  themselves,  of  the  white 
population,  and  of  the  whole  brotherhood  of  States,  feder- 
ated into  national  life.  And  while  the  principles  of  liberty 
and  justice  are  one  and  the  same,  always  and  every  where, 
the  wisest  method  of  conferring  upon  man  the  benefit  of  lib- 


264  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


erty  and  justice,  demands  great  consideration,  according  to 
circumstances. 

How  to  apply  an  acknowledged  principle  in  practical  life, 
is  a  task  more  diflScult  than  the  defence  of  the  principle.  It 
is  harder  to  define  what  would  be  just  in  certain  emergencies, 
than  to  establish  the  duty,  claims,  and  authority  of  justice. 

Can  any  light  be  thrown  upon  this  difi&cult  path?  Some 
light  may  be  shed ;  but  the  difficulties  of  duty  can  never  be 
removed  except  by  the  performance  of  duty.  But,  some 
things  may  be  known  beforehand,  and  guide  to  practical 
solutions. 

I  shall  proceed  to  show  The  Wrong  Way  and  The  Right 
Way. 

1.  First,  we  have  no  right  to  treat  the  citizens  of  the  South 
with  acrimony  and  hiitemess,  because  they  are  involved  in  a 
system  of  wrong-doing.  Wrong  is  to  be  exposed.  But  the 
spirit  of  rebuke  may  be  as  wicked  before  God,  as  the  spirit  of 
the  evil  rebuked.  Simplicity  and  firmness  in  truth  are  more 
powerful  than  any  vehement  bitterness.  Speaking  the  truth 
in  love,  is  the  Apostle's  prescription.  Some  men  so  love  that 
'they  will  not  speak  painful  truth,  and  some  men  utter  truths 
so  bitterly  as  to  destroy  love ;  and  both  are  evil-doers.  A 
malignant  speech  of  Slavery  will  not  do  any  good ;  and,  most 
of  all,  it  will  not  do  those  any  good  who  most  excite  our 
sympathy  —  the  children  of  bondage.  If  we  hope  to  amelio- 
rate the  condition  of  the  slave,  the  first  step  must  not  be  taken 
by  setting  the  master  against  him.  We  may  be  sure  that 
God  will  not  employ  mere  wrath  for  wisdom ;  and  that  he 
will  raise  up  and  send  forth,  when  his  day  comes,  fearless 
men,  who  shall  speak  the  truth  for  justice,  in  the  spirit  of 
love.  Therefore,  it  is  a  matter,  not  merely  of  political  and 
secular  wisdom,  but  of  Christian  conscience,  that  those  that 
have  at  heart  the  welfare  of  the  enslaved  should  maintain  a 
Christian  spirit.  This  can  be  done  without  giving  up  ono 
word  of  truth,  or  one  principle  of  righteousness.   A  man  may 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


265 


be  fearless  and  plain  spoken,  and  yet  give  evidence  of  being 
sympathetic,  and  kind-hearted,  and  loving. 

2.  The  breeding  of  discontent  among  the  bondmen  of  our 
land,  is  not  the  way  to  help  them.  Whatever  gloomy  thoughts 
the  slave's  own  mind  may  brood,  we  are  not  to  carry  disquiet 
to  him  from  without. 

If  I  could  have  my  way,  every  man  on  the  globe  should  be 
a  free  man,  and  at  once.  But  as  they  cannot  be,  will  not  be, 
for  ages,  is  it  best  that  bitter  discontent  should  be  inspired  in 
them,  or  Christian  quietness  and  patient  waiting?  If  rest- 
lessness would  bring  freedom,  they  should  never  rest.  But  I 
firmly  believe  that  moral  goodness  in  the  slave  is  the  harbin- 
ger of  liberty.  The  influence  of  national  freedom  will  gradu- 
ally reach  the  enslaved.  It  will  hereby  inspire  that  restless- 
ness which  precedes  development.  Germination  is  the  most 
silent,  but  most  disturbing  of  all  natural  processes.  Slaves 
are  bound  to  feel  the  universal  summer  of  civilization.  In 
this  way  they  must  come  to  restless  yearnings.  We  cannot 
help  that,  and  would  not  if  we  could.  It  is  God's  sign  that 
spring  has  come  to  them.  The  soul  is  coming  up.  There 
must  be  room  for  it  to  grow.  But  this  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  surly  discontent,  stirred  up  from  without,  and  left 
to  rankle  in  their  unenlightened  natures. 

The  time  is  rapidly  coming  when  the  Southern  Christian 
will  feel  a  new  inspiration.  We  are  not  far  removed  from 
a  revival  of  the  doctrines  of  Christian  manhood,  and  the 
divine  right  of  men.  When  this  pentecost  comes,  the  slaves 
will  be  stirred  by  their  own  masters.  We  must  work  upon 
the  master.  Make  him  discontented  with  slavery,  and  he 
will  speedily  take  care  of  the  rest.  Before  this  time  comes, 
any  attempt  to  excite  discontent  among  the  slaves  will  work 
mischief  to  them,  and  not  good.  And  my  experience  — 
and  I  have  had  some  experience  in  this  matter — is,  that 
men  wlio  tamper  with  slaves  and  incite  them,  are  not  them- 
selves to  be  trusted.    They  are  not  honest  men,  unless  they 


266  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 

are  fanatical.  If  they  have  their  reason,  they  usually  have 
lost  their  conscience.  I  never  will  trust  such  men  with 
money,  nor  place  any  confiden'  j  in  them  whatsoever.  I 
do  not  know  why  it  is  so,  but  my  experience  has  taught 
me  that  men  who  do  such  things  are  crafty,  and  come  forth 
from  such  tampering  unreliable  men.  Conspirators,  the 
world  over,  are  bad  men.  And  if  I  were  in  tiie  South  — 
and  I  think  I  have  the  reputation  there  of  being  a  tolera- 
bly stout  abolitionist  —  I  should,  not  from  fear  of  the  master, 
but  from  the  most  deliberate  sense  of  the  injurious  etfects  of 
it  to  the  slave,  never  by  word,  nor  sign,  nor  act,  do  any  thing 
to  excite  discontent  among  those  that  are  in  Slavery.  The 
condition  of  the  slave  must  be  changed,  but  the  change  can- 
not go  on  in  one  part  of  the  community  alone.  There  must 
be  change  in  the  law,  change  in  the  church,  change  in  the 
upper  classes,  change  in  the  middle  classes,  and  in  all  classes. 
Emancipation  when  it  comes,  will  come  either  by  i  3volution, 
or  by  a  change  of  public  opinion  in  the  whole  community. 
No  influences,  then,  are  adequate  to  the  relief  of  the  slave, 
which  are  hot  of  a  proportion  and  power  sufficient  to  modify 
the  thought  and  the  feeling  of  the  whole  community.  The 
evil  is  not  partial.  It  cannot  be  cured  by  partial  remedies. 
Our  plans  must  include  a  universal  change  in  policy,  feeling, 
purpose,  theory,  and  practice,  in  the  nation.  The  application 
of  simple  remedies  to  single  spots,  in  this  great  body  of 
diseases,  will  serve  to  produce  a  useless  irritation ;  it  will 
merely  fester  the  hand,  but  not  cure  the  whole  body. 

3.  No  relief  will  be  carried  to  the  slaves  of  the  South,  as  a 
body,  by  any  individual  or  organized  plans  to  carry  them  off, 
or  to  incite  them  to  abscond. 

The  more  enlightened  and  liberty-loving  among  the  South- 
em  slaves,  bear  too  much  of  their  masters'  blood  not  to  avail 
themselves  of  any  opening  to  escape.  It  is  their  right — it 
will  be  their  practice.  Free  locomotion  is  an  incident  to 
slave  prpperty  whicli  the  master  must  put  up  with..  Nimble 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  267 


legs  are  much  used  in  providence  to  temper  the  seventy  of 
Slavery.  If,  therefore,  an  enslaved  man,  acting  from  the 
yearnings  of  his  own  heart,  desires  to  run  away,  who  shall 
forbid  him  ?  In  all  the  earth,  wherever  a  human  being  is 
held  in  bondage,  he  has  a  right  to  slough  his  burden  and 
break  his  yoke  if  he  can.  If  he  wishes  liberty,  and  is  willing 
to  dare  and  ^suffer  for  it,  let  him !  If  by  his  manly  courage 
he  achieves  it,  he  ought  to  have  it.  And  I  honor  such  a 
man ! 

Nay,  if  he  has  escaped  and  comes  to  me,  I  owe  him  shelter, 
succor,  defence,  and  God-speed  to  a  final  safety.  If  tliere 
were  as  many  laws  as  there  are  lines  in  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  and  as  many  officers  as  there  were  lions  in  Daniel's 
lions'  den,  I  would  disregard  every  law,  but  God's,  and  help 
the  fugitive !  The  officers  might  catch  me,  but  not  him,  if  I 
could  help  it.  A  man  whose  own  heart  has  inspired  liberty 
and  courage  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  achieve  what  he 
desired,  shall  never  come  to  my  door  and  not  be  made  as 
welcome  as  my  own  child.  I  will  adopt  him  for  God's  sake, 
and  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  who  broods  over  the  M'eak  and 
perishing.  Nor  am  I  singular  in  such  feelings  and  purposes. 
Ten  thousand  men,  even  in  the  South,  would  feel  and  do  the 
same.  A  man  who  would  not  help  a  fellow  creature  flying 
for  his  liberty,  must  be  either  a  villain  or  a  politician. 

But  all  this  is  very  different  from  stirring  up  discontent, 
and  settikig  on  men  to  escape  by  outside  influence. 

I  stand  on  the  outside  of  this  great  cordon  of  darkness,  and 
every  man  that  escapes  from  it,  running  for  his  life,  shall 
have  some  help  from  me,  if  he  comes  forth  of  his  own  free 
accord ;  yet  I  am  not  the  man  to  go  in  and  incite  slaves 
to  run  away,  to  send  any  other  man  to  do  it,  to  approve  it,  or 
to  countenance  it.  I  do  not  believe  we  have  a  right  to  carry 
into  ihe  system  of  slavery  exterior  discontent ;  and  for  this 
reason :  that  it  is  not  good  for  the  slaves  themselves.  It  is 
sliort-sighted  humanity,  at  best,  and  poor  policy  for  both  thp 


268  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


blacks  and  the  whites.  And  I  say  again,  I  would  not  trust  a 
man  that  would  do  it.  It  would  injure  the  blacks  chiefly  and 
especially.  How  it  would  injure  them  will  appear  when  I 
come  to  speak  positively  of  what  is  the  right  way  to  promote 
the  liberty  of  the  enslaved.  I  may  say  here,  however,  that 
the  higher  a  man  is  raised  in  the  scale  of  being,  the  harder  it 
will  be  to  hold  him  in  bondage  and  to  sell  him ;  while  the 
more  he  is  like  an  animal,  the  easier  it  will  be  to  hold  him  in 
thrall  and  harness.  The  more  you  make  slaveholders  feel 
that  when  they  oppress  and  sell  a  man,  they  are  oppressing 
and  selling  God's  image,  the  harder  it  will  be  for  them  to 
continue  to  enslave  and  traffic  in  human  beings.  Therefore, 
whatever  you  do  to  inspire  in  the  slave  high,  and  noble,  and 
godlike  feelings,  tends  to  loosen  his  chains;  and  whatever 
shall  inspire  in  him  base,  low,  and  cruel  feelings,  tightens 
them. 

Bunning  away  is  all  fair  for  single  cases.  It  is  God's  rem- 
edy for  all  cases  of  special  hardship.  It  is  the  natural  right 
of  any  slave  who  is  of  a  manhood  enough  to  resent  even  tol- 
erant bondage.  But  we  are  not  speaking  of  the  remedy  for 
individuals,  but  the  remedy  for  the  whole  system.  Four  mil- 
lion men  cannot  run  away  until  God  sends  ten  Egyptian 
plagues  to  help  them.  And  those  who  go  among  the  slaves 
to  stir  up  such  a  disposition,  will  help  the  hundreds  at  the 
expense  of  the  millions.  Those  left  behind  will  be  demoral- 
ized, and  becoming  less  trustworthy,  will  grow  sullen  under 
increased  severity  and  vigilance. 

4.  Still  less  would  we  tolerate  any  thing  like  insurrection 
and  servile  war.  It  would  be  the  most  cruel,  hopeless,  and 
desperate  of  all  conceivable  follies,  to  seek  emancipation  by 
the  sword  and  by  blood.  And  though  I  love  liberty  as  my 
own  life ;  though  I  long  for  it  in  every  human  being ;  though, 
if  God  by  unequivocal  providences,  should  ordain  that  it 
should  come  again  as  of  old,  through  terrible  plagues  on  the 
^rst  bom,  and  by  other  terrors  of  ill,  I  should  submit  to  the 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  269 


Divine  behest ;  yet,  so  far  as  human  instrumentation  is  con- 
cerned, with  all  the  conscience  of  a  man,  with  all  the  faith  of 
a  Christian,  and  with  all  the  zeal  and  warmth  of  a  philanthro- 
pist, I  protest  against  any  counsels  that  lead  to  insurrection, 
servile  war,  and  bloodshed.  It  is  bad  for  the  master  —  bad 
for  the  slave  —  bad  for  all  that  are  neighbors  to  them  —  bad 
for  the  whole  land  —  bad  from  beginning  to  end  !  An  evil 
so  unminded  and  malignant,  that  its  origin  can  scarcely  be 
doubted. 

I  believe,  however,  in  the  right  of  a  people  to  assert  and 
achieve  their  liberty.  The  right  of  a  race  or  nation  to  seize 
their  freedom  is  not  to  be  disputed.  It  belongs  to  all  men  on 
the  face  of  the  globe,  without  regard  to  complexion.  A  peo- 
ple have  the  right  to  change  their  rulers,  their  government, 
their  whole  political  condition.  This  right  is  not  either  grant- 
ed or  limited  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  left,  as  is  air, 
water,  and  existence  itself,  as  things  not  requiring  command 
or  legislation.  But  according  to  God's  word,  so  long  as  a 
man  remains  a  servant,  he  must  obey  his  master.  The  right 
of  the  slave  to  throw  off  the  control  of  his  master  is  not  abro- 
gated. The  right  of  the  subject  to  do  this  is  neither  defined 
nor  limited. 

But  the  tise  of  this  right  must  conform  to  reason  and  to 
benefit.  The  leaders  of  a  people  have  no  right  to  whelm 
their  helpless  followers  into  terrible  disaster  by  inciting  them 
to  rebel,  under  circumstances  that  afford  not  the  slightest 
hope  that  their  rebellion  will  rise  to  the  dignity  of  a  success- 
ful revolution. 

The  nations  of  Italy  are  showing  great  wisdom  and  fitness 
in  their  leaders  for  their  work,  in  this  very  thing,  that  they 
are  quelling  fretful  and  irregular  outbreaks,  and  holding  the 
people  steadfast  till  success  shall  surely  crown  uprising  revo- 
lution. This  has  been  the  eminent  wisdom  of  that  Hungarian 
exile  —  Kossuth. 

In  spit^  of  all  that  is  written  and  said  against  this  noble 
23* 


270  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


man,  I  stand  to  my  first  full  faith  in  him.  The  uncrowned 
hex'o  is  the  noblest  man,  after  all,  in  Europe  !  And  his  states- 
manship has  been  shown  in  this ;  that  his  burning  sense  of 
the  right  of  his  people  to  be  free,  has  not  led  him  to  incite 
them  to  premature,  partial,  and  easily  over-matched  revolt.  A 
man  may  give  his  own  life  rather  than  abide  in  servitude,  but 
he  has  no  right  to  lead  a  whole  people  to  slaughter,  without 
the  strongest  probabilities  of  success. 

If  nations  were  all  armed  men,  it  would  be  different.  Sol- 
diers can  die.  But  a  nation  is  made  up  of  other  materials 
besides  armed  men ;  —  it  is  made  up  of  women,  and  children, 
and  youth.  These  are  to  be  considered  —  not  merely  men 
of  muscle,  and  knuckle,  and  bone.  Andaman  that  leads  a 
people,  has  no  right  to  incite  that  people  to  rise,  unless  there 
is  a  reasonable  prospect  that  they  will  conquer. 

Now,  if  the  Africans  in  our  land  were  intelligent ;  if  they 
understood  themselves ;  if  they  had  self-governing  power;  if 
they  were  able  first  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  laws  and  consti- 
tutions, and  afterwards  to  defend  and  build  themselves  up  in 
a  civil  state ;  then  they  would  have  just  the  same  right  to 
assume  their  independence  that  any  nation  has. 

But  does  any  man  believe  that  this  is  the  case  ?  Does  any 
man  believe  that  this  vast  horde  of  undisciplined  Africans,  if 
set  free,  would  have  cohesive  power  enough  to  organize  them- 
selves into  a  government,  and  maintain  their  independence  ? 
If  there  be  men  who  believe  this,  I  am  not  among  them.  I 
certainly  flunk  that  even  slaves  would  be  made  immeasurably 
better  by  liberty ;  but  I  do  not  believe  they  would  be  made 
better  by  liberty  gained  by  insurrection  or  rebellion.  A  regu- 
lated liberty  —  a  liberty  possessed  with  the  consent  of  their 
masters ;  a  liberty  under  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the  coun- 
try; a  liberty  which  should  make  them  common  beneficiaries 
of  those  institutions  and  principles  which  make  us  wise  and 
happy  —  such  a  liberty  would  be  a  great  blessing  to  them. 
Freedom  with  law  and  government  is  a  good,  but  without 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  271 


them  it  is  a  mischief.  And  any  thing  that  tends  to  incite 
among  men  a  vague  insurrectionary  spirit,  is  a  great  and 
cruel  wrong  to  them. 

If,  in  view  of  the  wrongs  of  Slavery,  you  say  that  you  do 
not  care  for  the  master,  but  only  the  slave,  I  reply  that  you 
should  care  for  both  master  and  slave  !  If  you  do  not  care 
for  the  fate  of  the  wrong-doing  white  man,  1  do  care  for  the 
fate  of  the  wrong-doing  white  man?  But  even  though  your 
sympathy  wer-e  only  for  the  slave,  then  fbr  his  sake  you  ought 
to  set  your  face  against,  and  discountenance,  any  thing  like  an 
insurrectionary  spirit.  Let  us  turn,  then,  from  these  specifica- 
tions of  THE  WRONG-  "WAY  to  somc  consideration  relating  to 

THE  RIGHT  WAY. 

y  1.  If  we  would  benefit  the  African  at  the  South,  we  must 
begin  at  home.  This  is,  to  some  men,  the  most  disagreeable 
part  of  the  doctrine  of  emancipation.  It  is  very  easy  to  labor 
for  the  emancipation  of  beings  a  thousand  miles  off;  but  when 
it  comes  to  the  practical  application  of  justice  and  humanity 
to  those  about  us,  it  is  not  so  easy.  The  truths  of  God  re- 
specting the  rights  and  dignities  of  men,  are  just  as  important 
to  free  colored  men  as  to  enslaved  colored  men.  It  may  seem 
strange  for  me  to  say  that  the  lever  with  which  to  lift  the 
load  of  Georgia  is  in  New  York;  but  it  is  so.  I  do  not 
believe  the  whole  free  North  can  tolerate  grinding  injustice 
towards  the  poor,  and  inhumanity  towards  the  laboring  classes, 
without  exerting  an  influence  unfavorable  to  justice  and  hu- 
manity in  the  South. 

No  one  can  fail  to  see  the  inconsistency  between  our  treat- 
ment of  those  amongst  us  who  are  in  the  lower  walks  of  life, 
and  our  professions  of  sympathy  for  the  Southern  slaves. 
How  are  the  free  colored  people  treated  at  the  North? 
They  are  almost  without  education,  with  but  little  sympathy 
for  ignorance.  They  are  refused  the  common  rights  of  citi- 
zenship which  the  whites  enjoy.  They  cannot  even  ride  in 
the  cars  of  our  city  railroads.    They  are  snuffed  at  in  the 


272  Henry  Ward  Eeecher. 


house  of  God,  or  tolerated  -with  ill-disguised  disgust.  Can 
the  black  man  be  a  mason  in  New  York  ?  Let  him  be 
employed  as  a  journeyman,  and  every  Irish  lover  of  liberty 
that  carries  the  hod  or  trowel  would  leave  at  once,  or  compel 
him  to  leave  !  Can  the  black  man  be  a  carpenter  ?  There 
is  scarcely  a  carpenter's  shop  in  New  York  in  which  a  jour- 
neyman would  continue  to  work,  if  a  black  man  was  employed 
in  it.  Can  tfie  black  man  engage  in  the  common  industries 
of  life  ?  There  is  scarcely  one  in  which  he  can  engage.  He 
is  crowded  down,  down,  down,  through  the  most  menial  call- 
ings, to  the  bottom  of  society. 

We  tax  them,  and  then  refuse  to  allow  their  children  to  go 
to  our  public  schools.  TVe  tax  them,  and  then  refuse  to  sit 
by  them  in  God's  house.  We  heap  upon  them  moral  oblo- 
quy more  atrocious  than  that  which  the  master  heaps  upon 
the  slave.  And  notwithstanding  all  this,  we  lift  ourselves  up 
to  talk  to  the  Southern  people  about  the  rights  and  liberties 
of  the  human  soul,  and  especially  the  African  soul !  It  is  true 
that  Slavery  is  cruel.  But  it  is  not  at  all  certain  tliat  there 
is  not  more  love  to  the  race  in  the  South  than  in  the  North. 
They  love  their  property.  We*  do  not  own  them,  so  we  do 
not  love  them  at  all.  The  prejudice  of  the  whites  against 
color  is  so  strong  that  they  cannot  endure  to  ride  or  sit  with 
a  black  man,  so  long  as  they  do  not  own  him.  As  a  neighbor, 
they  are  not  to  be  tolerated ;  but  as  property,  they  are  most 
tolerable  in  the  house,  the  church,  the  carriage,  the  couch  ! 
The  African  otmed,  may* dwell  in  America;  but  tmowned, 
he  must  be  expatriated ;  emancipation  must  be  jackal  to  col- 
onization. The  choice  given  to  the  African  is  plantation  or 
colonization.  Our  Christian  public  sentiment  is  a  pendulum 
swinging  between  owning  or  exporting  the  poor  in  our  midst. 

Whenever  we  are  prepared  to  show  towards  the  lowest,  the 
poorest,  and  the  most  despised,  an  unaflfected  kindness,  such 
as  led  Christ,  though  the  Lord  of  glory,  to  lay  aside  his  dig- 
nities, and  take  on  himself  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  to  an 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


273 


!£  ominious  death,  that  he  might  rescue  men  from  ignorance 
and  bondage  —  whenever  we  are  prepared  to  do  such  things 
as  these,  we  may  be  sure  that  the  example  of  the  North  will 
not  be  unfelt  at  the  South.  Every  effort  that  is  made  in 
Brooklyn  to  establish  schools  and  churches  for  the  free  col- 
ored people,  and  to  encourage  them  to  educate  themselves 
and  become  independent,  is  a  step  towards  emancipation 
in  the  South.  The  degradation  of  free  colored  men  in  the 
North  will  fortify  Slavery  in  the  South ! 

2.  We  must  quicken  all  the  springs  of  feeling  in  the  Free 
States  in  behalf  of  human  liberty,  and  create  a  public  senti- 
ment, based  upon  truth  and  true  manhood.  For  if  we  act  to 
any  good  purpose  on  the  minds  of  the  South,  we  must  do  it 
through  a  salutary  and  pure  public  sentiment  in  the  North. 
When  we  have  corrected  our  own  practice,  and  set  an  exam- 
ple of  the  right  spirit,  then  we  shall  have  a  position  from 
Avhich  to  exert  a  beneficial  public  influence  on  the  minds  of 
Southern  slaveholders.  For  this  there  must  be  full  and  free 
discussion.  Under  our  institutions,  public  opinion  is  the  mon- 
arch, and  free  speech  and  debate  form  public  opinion. 

The  air  must  be  vital  with  the  love  of  liberty.  Liberty 
with  us  must  be  raised  by  religion  from  the  selfishness  of  an 
instinct  to  the  sanctity  of  a  moral  principle !  We  must  love 
it  for  ourselves  and  demand  it  for  others.  Since  Christ  took 
man's  nature  human  life  has  a  Divine  sanctity.  We  must 
inspire  in  the  public  mind  a  profound  sense  of  the  rights  of 
men  founded  upon  their  relations  to  God.  The  glory  of  in- 
telligence, refinement,  genius,  has  nothing  to  do  with  men's 
rights.  The  rice  slave,  the  Hottei^ot,  are  as  much  God's 
children  as  Humboldt  or  Chalmers.  That  they  are  in  degra- 
dation only  makes  it  more  imperative  upon  us  to  secure  to 
them  the  birthright  which  they  in  ignorance  might  sell  for  a 
mess  of  pottage. 

These  things  must  become  familiar  again  to  our  pulpits. 
Our  children  must  be  taught  to  glow  again  in  our  schools 


274  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


over  the  heroic  ideals  of  liberty.  Mothers  must  twine  the 
first  threads  of  their  children's  life  with  the  golden  threads 
of  these  divine  truths,  and  the  whole  of  life  must  be  woven  to 
the  heavenly  pattern  of  liberty ! 

What  can  the  North  do  for  the  South,  unless  her  own 
heart  is  purified  and  ennobled  ?  When  the  love  of  Liberty  is 
at  so  low  an  ebb  that  churches  dread  the  sound,  ministers 
shrink  from  the  topic ;  when  book  publishers  dare  not  publish 
or  republish  a  word  on  the  subject  of  Slavery,  cut  out  every 
living  word  from  school  books,  expurgate  life-passages  from 
Humboldt,  Spurgeon,  and  all  foreign  authors  or  teachers; 
and  when  great  religious  publication  societies,  endowed  for 
the  very  purpose  of  speaking  fearlessly  the  truths  which 
interest  would  let  perish,  pervert  their  trust,  and  are  dumb, 
first  and  chiefly,  and  articulate  only  in  things  that  thousands 
of  others  could  publish  as  well  as  they,  —  what  chance  is 
there  that  public  sentiment,  in  such  a  community,  will  have 
any  power  with  the  South  ? 

But  the  end  of  these  things  is  at  hand.  A  nobler  spirit  is 
arising.  New  men,  new  hearts,  new  zeal,  are  coming  for- 
ward, led  on  by  all  those  signs  and  auspices  that  God  fore- 
eends  when  he  prepares  the  people  to  advance.  This  work, 
well  begun,  must  not  go  back.  It  must  grow,  like  spring, 
into  summer.  God  will  then  give  it  an  autumn  —  without  a 
winter.  And  when  such  a  public  sentiment  fills  the  North, 
founded  upon  religion,  and  filled  with  fearless  love  to  both 
the  bond  and  the  free,  it  will  work  all  over  the  continent,  and 
nothing  can  be  hid  from  the  shining  thereof. 

3.  By  all  the  ways  consistent  with  the  fearless  assertion  of 
truth,  we  must  maintain  sympathy  and  kindness  towards  the 
South.  We  are  brethren ;  and  I  pray  that  no  fratricidal  in- 
fluences may  he  permitted  to  sunder  this  Union.  There  was 
a  time  when  I  thought  the  body  of  death  would  be  too  much 
for  life,  and  that  the  North  was  in  danger  of  taking  disease 
from  the  South,  rather  than  they  our  health.    That  time  has 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  275 


gone  past.  I  do  not  believe  that  we  shall  be  separated  by 
their  act  or  ours.  We, have  an  element  of  healing,  which,  if 
we  are  true  to  ourselves  and  our  principles,  and  God  is  kind 
to  us,  shall  drive  itself  farther  and  farther  into  the  nation, 
until  it  penetrates  and  regenerates  e^ery  part.  When  the 
whole  lump  shall  have  been  leavened  thereby,  old  prejudices 
will  be  done  away,  and  new  sympathies  will  be  created. 

I  am  for  holding  the  heart  of  the  North  right  up  to  the  heart 
of  the  South.  Every  heart-beat  will  be,  ere  long,  not  a  blow 
riveting  oppression,  but  a  throb  carrying  new  health.  Free- 
dom in  the  North  is  stronger  than  Slavery  in  the  South.  We 
are  yet  to  work  for  them,  as  the  silent  spring  works  for  us. 
They  are  a  lawful  prey  to  love.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  the 
South  what  I  mean  by  loving  a  Union  with  them.  I  mean 
Liberty.  I  mean  the  decay  of  Slavery,  and  its  extinction.  If  I 
might  speak  for  the  North,  I  would  say  to  the  South,  "  We 
love  you,  and  hate  your  Slavery.  We  shall  leave  no  frater- 
nal effort  untried  to  deliver  you,  and  ourselves  with  you,  from 
the  degradation,  danger,  and  wickedness  of  this  system."  And 
for  this  we  cling  to  the  Union.    There  is  health  in  it. 

4.  We  are  to  leave  no  pains  untaken,  through  the  Chris- 
tian conscience  of  the  South,  to  give  to  the  slave  himself  a 
higher  moral  status.  I  lay  it  down  as  an  axiom,  that  what- 
ever gives  more  manhood  to  the  slave  slackens  the  bonds  that 
bind  him,  and  that  whatever  lowers  him  in  the  scale  of  man- 
hood, tightens  those  bonds.  If  you  wish  to  work  for  the  en- 
franchisement of  the  African,  seek  to  make  him  a  better  man. 
Teach  him  to  be  an  obedient  servant,  and  an  honest,  true, 
Christian  man.  These  virtues  are  God's  step-stones  to  liberty. 
That  man  whom  Christ  first  makes  free,  has  a  better  chance  to 
be  civilly  free  than  any  other.  To  make  a  slave  morose,  frac- 
tious, disobedient,  and  unwilling  to  work,  is  the  way  to  defer 
his  emancipation.  We  do  not  ask  the  slave  to  be  satislied 
with  Slavery.  But,  feeling  its  grievous  burden,  we  ask  him 
to  endure  it  while  he  must,  "  as  unto  God  and  not  unto  man  j " 


276  Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


not  because  he  does  not  love  liberty,  but  because  he  does  love 
Christ  enough  to  show  forth  his  spirit  under  grievous  wrong. 
Poor  slaves  will  never  breed  respect,  sympathy,  and  emanci- 
pation. Truth,  honor,  fidelity,  manhood,  —  these  things  in 
the  slave  will  prepare  him  for  freedom.  It  is  the  low  animal 
condition  of  the  African  that  enslaves  him.  It  is  moral 
enfranchisement  that  will  break  his  bonds. 

The  Pauline  treatment  is  the  most  direct  road  to  liberty. 
No  part  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Ncav  Testament  seems  to  me 
more  divinely  wise  than  Paul's  directions  to  those  in  Slavery. 
They  are  the  food  that  servants  need,  now,  at  the  South, 
every  where,  the  world  over!  If  I  lived  in  the  South,  I 
should  preacli  these  things  to  slaves,  while  preaching  on  mas- 
ters' duties  to  those  who  hold  them.  I  should  do  it  with  a 
firm  conviction  that  so  I  should  advance  the  day  of  their 
liberty ! 

In  order  to  labor  the  most  effectually  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves,  I  would  not  need  to  say  one  word,  except  to 
preach  Clirist,  and  purity,  and  manhood,  and  to  enjoin  upon 
them  faithfulness  in  every  duty  belonging  to  their  state.  I 
should  be  conscious  that  in  doing  this  I  was  lifting  them  up 
higher  and  higher.  I  should  feel  that  I  was  carrying  them 
farther  and  farther  toward  their  emancipation.  There  is  no 
disagreement  between  the  true  spirit  of  emancipation  and 
the  enpsrcernent  of  every  single  one  of  the  precepts  of  the 
New  Testament  respecting  servants. 

5.  The  things  which  shall  lead  to  emancipation  are  not  so 
complicated  or  many  as  many  people  blindly  think.  A  few 
virtues  established,  a  few  usages  maintained,  a  few  rights 
guaranteed  to  the  slave,  and  the  system  is  vitally  wounded. 
The  right  of  chastity  in  the  wi»man,  the  unblemished  house- 
hold love,  the  riglit  of  parents  in  their  children,  —  on  these 
three  elements*  stands  the  whole  weight  of  society.  Cor- 
rupt or  enfeeble  these,  and  there  cannot  be  superincumbent 
strength.     Withhold  these  rights  from  savage  people,  and 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  277 


tliey  can  never  be  carried  up.  They  are  t,he  integral  ele- 
ments of  associated  human  life.  We  demand,  and  have  a 
riglit  to  demand,  of  the  Christian  men  of  the  South,  that  they 
shall  revolutionize  the  moral  condition  of  the  slave  in  thi.s 
regard. 

I  stand  up  in  behalf  of  two  million  women  who  are  without 
a  voice,  to  declare  that  there  ought  to  be  found  in  Christian- 
ity, somewhere,  an  influence  that  shall  protect  their  right  to 
their  own  persons  ;  and  that  their  purity  shall  stand  on  some 
other  ground  than  the  caprice  of  their  majtei's.  I  demand 
that  the  Christian  Church,  both  North  and  South,  shall  bear 
a  testimony  in  behalf  of  marriage  among  the  slaves,  which 
shall  make  it  as  inviolable  as  marriage  among  the  whites.  It 
is  not  to  be  denied  that  another  code  of  morals  prevails  upon 
the  plantation  than  that  which  prevails  in  thte  plantation 
house.  So  long  as  husband  and  wife  are  marriageable  com- 
modities, and  to  be  sold  apart,  to  form  new  connections,  there 
can  be  no  such  thing  as  sanctity  in  wedlock. 

Let  it  be  known  in  New  York  that  a  man  has  two  wives, 
and  there  is  no  church  so  feeble  of  conscience  that  they  will 
not  instantly  eject  him  ;  and  the  civil  law  will  instantly  visit 
him  wiih  penalty.  But  the  communicants  of  slave  churches 
not  only  live  with  a  second,  while  their  first  companion  is 
yet  alive,  but  with  a  third,  and  fourth ;  nor  is  it  any  disquali- 
fication for  church  membership.  The  Church  and  the  State 
wink  at  it.  It  is  a  part  of  the  commercial  necessity  of  the 
system.  If  you  will  sell  men,  you  must  not  be  too  nice  about 
their  moral  virtues. 

A  wedding,  among  this  unhappy  people,  is  but  a  name  — 
a  mere  form,  to  content  their  conscience,  or  their  love  of 
imitating  their  superiors.  And  every  auctioneer  in  their  com- 
munity has  the  power  to  put  asunder  whom  God  has  joined. 
And  marriage  is  as  movable  as  misfortune  itself.  The  bank- 
ruptcy of  their  owner  is  the  bankruptcy  of  the  marriage 
relation,  in  half  the  slaves  on  his  plantation. 
24 


278 


Henry  Ward  Beecher. 


Neither  is  there  any  Gospel  that  has  been  permitted  to 
rebuke  these  things^  There  is  no  church  that  I  have  ever 
known  in  the  South,  that  bears  testimony  against  them.  Nei- 
ther will  the  churches  in  the  North,  as  a  body,  take  upoa 
themselves  the  responsibility  of  bearing  witness  against 
them. 

I  go  further :  I  declare  that  there  must  be  a  Christian  public 
sentiment,  which  shall  make  the  family  inviolate.  Men  some- 
times say,  "  It  is  rarely  the  case  that  families  are  separated." 
It  is  false !  It  is  false !  There  is  not  a  slave  mart  that  does 
not  bear  testimony,  ten  thousand  times  over,  against  such  au 
assertion.  Children  are  bred  like  colts  and  calves,  and  are 
dispersed  like  them. 

It  is  in  vain  to  preach  a  Gospel  to  slaves  that  leaves  out 
personal  chastity  in  man  and  woman,  or  that  leaves  this  puri- 
ty subject  to  another's  control  I  that  leaves  out  the  sanctity 
of  the  marriage  state,  and  the  unity  and  inviolability  of  the 
family.  And  yet  no  Gospel  has  borne  such  a  testimony 
in  favor  of  them,  as  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  the  South ! 
If  ministers  will  not  preach  liberty  to  the  captive,  they  ought 
at  least  to  preach  the  indispensable  necessity  of  household 
virtue !  If  they  will  not  call  upon  the  masters  to  set  their 
slaves  free,  they  should  at  least  proclaim  a  Christianity  that 
protects  woman,  childhood,  and  household  ! 

The  moment  a  woman  stands  self-poised  in  her  own  purity; 
the  moment  man  and  woman  are  united  together  by  bonds 
which  cannot  be  sundered  during  their  earthly  life  ;  the  mo- 
ment the  right  of  parents  to  their  children  is  recognized  —  that 
moment  there  will  be  a  certain  sanctity  and  protection  of  the 
Eternal  and  Divine  government  resting  upon  father,  and  moth- 
er, and  children ;  and  Slavery  will  have  had  its  death-blow 
struck !  You  cannot  make  Slavery  profitable  after  these  three 
conditions  are  secured ;  the  moment  you  make  slaves  serfs  they 
become  a  difficult  legal  tender,  and  are  uncurrent  in  the  mar- 
ket ;  and  families  are  so  cumbrous,  so  difficult  to  support,  so 


Henry  Ward  Beecher.  279 


expensive  that  owners  are  compelled,  from  reasons  of  pecu- 
niary interest,  to  drop  the  system. 

Therefore,  if  you  will  only  disseminate  the  truths  of  the 
Gospel ;  if,  getting  timid  priests  out  of  the  way,  and  lying 
societies,  whose  cowardice  slanders  the  Gospel  which  they 
pretend  to  diffuse,  you  bring  a  whole  solar  flood  of  revelation 
to  bear  upon  the  virtues  and  practical  morals  of  the  slave,  you 
will  begin  to  administer  a  remedy  which  will  inevitably  heal 
the  evil,  if  God  designs  to  cure  it  by  moral  means.  ^ 

6.  Among  the  means  to  be  employed  for  promoting  the  lib- 
erty of  the  Slave,  we  must  not  fail  to  include  the  power  of 
true  Christian  prayer.  When  Slavery  shall  cease,  it  will  be 
oy  such  instruments  and  influences  as  shall  exhibit  God's 
hand  and  heart  in  the  work.  Its  downfall  will  have  been  ' 
achieved  so  largely  through  natural  causes,  so  largely  through 
reasons  as  broad  as  nations,  that  it  will  be  apparent  to  all 
men  that  God  led  on  the  emancipation ;  man  being  only  one  | 
element  among  the  many.  Therefore,  we  have  every  encour-  1 
agement  to  direct  our  prayers  without  ceasing  to  God  that  he 
will  restrain  the  wrath  of  man,  inspire  men  with  wisdom, 
overrule  all  laws,  and  control  the  coro.merce  of  the  globe,  so 
that  the  poor  may  become  rich,  that  the  bond  may  become 
free,  that  the  ignorant  may  become  wise,  that  the  master  and 
felave  may  respect  each  other,  and  that,  at  length,  we  may  be 
an  evangelized  and  Christian  people.  May  God,  in  his  own 
way  and  time,  speed  the  day ! 


"  That  John  Brown  was  wrong,  in  his  attempt  to  break  up  Slavery 
by  violence,  few  will  deny.  But  it  was  a  wrong  committed  by  a  good 
man — by  one  who  dreaded  the  vengeance  of  the  Almighty  and  for- 
got His  long-suffering.  His  errors  were  the  result  of  want  of  pa- 
tience and  want  of  imagination,  and  he  paid  the  penalty  for  them. 
He  had  faith  in  the  divine  ordering  of  the  affairs  of  this  world ;  but 
he  forgot  that  the  processes  by  which  evils  like  that  of  Slavery  are 
done  away,  are  thousand-year  old,  —  that,  lo  be  effectual,  they  must 
be  slow,  —  that  wrong  is  no  remedy  for  wrong.  He  was  an  anach- 
ronism, and  met  the  fate  of  all  anachronisms  that  strive  to  stem  and 
dive/t  the  present  current,  by  modes  which  the  world  has  outgrown." 

The  Atlantic  Monthly. 


III. 


Speech  of  Charles  O'Conor.* 


R.  CHARLES  O'CONOR  was  received  with  loud 
.  applause.    He  said : 


Fellow-Citizens,  I  cannot  express  to  you  the  delight  which 
I  experience  in  beholding  in  this  great  city  so  vast  an  assem- 
bly of  my  fellow-citizens,  convened  for  the  purpose  stated  in 
your  resolutions.    (Voices  —  "  Louder !  louder ! ") 

It  may  be  proper  to  say,  gentlemen,  that  I  cannot  speak 
any  louder  than  I  do  at  this  instant ;  and  if  it  be  not  equal  to 
your  desires,  I  can  only  cease  to  employ  my  feeble  voice. 
(Cries  of  "  Go  on !  go  on ! ")  I  am  delighted,  gentlemen, 
beyond  measure,  to  behold  at  this  time  so  vast  an  assembly  of 
my  fellow-citizens,  responding  to  the  call  of  a  body  so  respecta- 
ble as  the  twenty-thousand  New  Yorkers  who  have  convened 
this  meeting.  If  any  thing  can  give  assurance  to  those  who 
doubt,  and  confidence  to  those  who  may  have  had  misgivings 
as  to  the  permanency  of  our  institutions,  and  the  solidity  of 
the  support  which  the  people  of  the  North  are  prepared  to 
give  them,  it  is  that  in  the  Queen  City  of  the  New  World  — 
the  capital  of  North  America  —  there  is  assembled  a  mee  ting 
so  la.rge,  so  respectable,  and  so  unanimous  as  this  meeting  lias 
show!i  itself  to  be  in  receiving  sentiments,  which,  if  observed, 
must  protect  our  Union  from  destruction,  and  even  from 
danger.  (Applause.) 


*  Dolivered  at  the  TJnion  Meeting  held  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  New  York,  Decern* 
ber,19,1859. 

24*  (281) 


282 


Charles  O'Conor. 


Gentlemen,  is  it  not  a  subject  of  astonishment  that  the  idea 
of  danger,  and  the  still  more  dreadful  idea  of  dissohition,  should 
be  heard  from  the  lips  of  an  American  citizen  at  this  d  y,  in 
reference  to,  or  in  connection  with,  the  sacred  name  of  this 
most  sacred  Union  ?  (Applause.)  Why,  gentlemen,  what  is 
our  Union  ?  What  are  its  antecedents  ?  What  is  its  present 
condition  ?  If  we  ward  off  the  evils  which  threaten  it,  what 
is  its  future  hope  to  us  and  to  the  great  family  of  miinkind  ? 
Why,  gentlemen,  it  may  well  be  said  of  this  Union,  as  a  Gov- 
ernment, that  as  it  is  Time's  last  offspring,  so  is  it  Time's  most 
glorious  and  beneficent  production.    (Loud  applause.) 

Gentlemen,  we  were  created  by  an  Omniscient  Being ;  we 
were  created  by  a  Being  not  only  all-seeing  and  all-powerful, 
but  all-wise ;  and  yet  in  the  benignity  and  the  far-seeing  wis- 
dom of  His  power.  He  permitted  the  great  family  of  mankind 
to  live  on,  to  advance,  to  improve  step  by  step,  five  thousand 
years  and  upwards,  before  He  laid  the  foundation  of  a  truly 
free,  a  truly  happy,  a  truly  independent  empire.  It  was  not, 
gentlemen,  until  that  great  length  of  time  had,  elapsed,  that  the 
earth  was  deemed  mature  for  laying  the  foundation  of  this 
mighty  and  prosperous  State.  It  was  then  that  the  inspired, 
the  noble-minded,  and  chivalrous  Gen'oese  set  forth  upon  the 
trackless  ocean,  and  discovered  the  region  we  now  enjoy.  But 
a  few  years,  comparatively,  elapsed,  when  there  was  raised  up 
in  this  blessed  land  a  set  of  men  whose  like  had  never  existed 
upon  the  face  of  this  earth  —  men  unequalled  in  their  percep> 
tion  of  the  true  principles  of  justice,  in  their  comprehensive 
benevolence,  in  their  capacity  to  lay,  safely,  justly,  soundly, 
and  with  all  the  qualities  which  should  insure  permanency, 
the  foundations  of  an  empire.  (Loud  cheers.)  It  was  in  this 
country,  in  177 6,  that  was  seen  the  first  assembly  of  rational 
men,  who  ever  proclaimed,  in  clear  and  undeniable  form,  the 
immutable  principles  of  justice,  and  consecrated,  I  trust,  to 
all  time,  in  the  face  of  tyrants,  and  in  opposition  to  their 
power,  the  rights  of  nations,  and  the  rights  of  men.  (Applause.) 
Tliose  patriots,  as  soon  as  the  storm  of  war  had  passed  away, 


Charles  O'Concr. 


283 


Bat  down  and  framed  that  instrument  on  which  our  Union 
rests  —  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  of  America. 
(Loud  applause.)  The  question,  gentlemen,  now  before  us,  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  simply  this:  whether  that  Constitu- 
tion, consecrated  by  the  blood  shed  in  our  glorious  Revolution, 
consecrated  by  the  signature  of  the  most  illustrious  man  who 
ever  lived  —  George  Washington  —  (applause)  —  whether 
that  instrument,  accepted  by  the  wisest  and  best  of  that  day, 
and  accepted  in  Convention,  one  by  one,  in  each  and  every 
State  of  this  Union  —  that  instrument  from  which  so  many 
blessings  have  flowed — whether  that  instrument  was  conceived 
in  crime  —  is  a  chapter  of  abominations — (cries  of  "No, 
no! ")  —  is  a  violation  of  justice  — is  a  league  betv/een  strong- 
handed  but  wicked-hearted  white  men,  to  oppress,  impoverish, 
and  plunder  their  fellow-creatures,  contrary  to  rectitude,  honor, 
and  justice.  (Loud  applause.)  That  is  the  question,  neither 
more  nor  less.  "We  are  told  from  pulpits ;  we  are  told  upon 
the  political  rostrum ;  we  are  told  in  the  legislative  assemblies 
of  our  Northern  States — not  merely  by  single  speakers,  but  by 
distinct  resolutions  of  the  whole  body ;  we  are  told  by  gentle- 
men occupying  seats  in  the  Congress  of  the  Union  through  the 
votes  of  Northern  people,  that  the  Constitution  seeks  to 
enshrine,  to  protect,  to  defend  a  monstrous  crime  against  jus- 
tice and  humanity,  and  that  it  is  our  duty  to  defeat  it .  pro- 
visions, to  outwit  them  if  we  cannot  otherwise  get  rid  of  their 
effect,  and  thereby  to  trample  upon  the  privileges  which  it  has 
declared  shall  be  protected  and  insi"'ed  to  our  brethren  of  the 
South.  (Applause.)  That  is  the  doctrine  now  advocated, 
{^^entlemen;  and  I  ask  whether  that  doctrine,  necessarily  in- 
volving the  destruction  of  our  Union,  shall  be  permitted  to 
prevail  as  it  has  hitherto  prevailed.  (Applause.) 

Gentlemen,  I  trust  you  will  excuse  mo  for  deliberately  com- 
ing up  to  and  meeting  this  question ;  not  seeking  to  captivate 
your  fancies  by  a  trick  of  Avords  —  not  seeking  to  exalt  your 
imaginations  by  declamation  or  any  effort  at  eloquence  —  but 


284 


Charles  O'Conofr 


meeting  this  question  gravely,  sedately,  and  soberly,  and  ask- 
ing yon  what  is  to  be  our  course  in  relation  to  it. 

Gentlemen,  the  Constitution  guarantees  to  the  people  of  the 
Southern  States  the  protection  of  their  slave  property.  In 
that  respect  it  is  a  solemn  compact  between  the  North  and 
South.  As  a  solemn  compact  are  we  at  liberty  to  violate  it  ? 
(Cries  of  "  No,  no ! ")  Are  we  at  liberty  to  seek  or  take  any 
mean  and  petty  advantage  of  it  ?  (Cries  of  "  No,  no,  we're 
not ! ")  Are  we  at  liberty  to  con  over  its  particular  words, 
and  to  restrict  and  limit  its  operation,  so  as  to  acquire,  under 
such  narrow  construction,  a  pretence  of  right,  by  hostile  and 
adverse  legislation,  to  interfere  with  the  interests,  wound  the 
feelings,  and  trample  on  the  political  rights  of  our  Southern 
fellow-citizens?  ("No,  no,  no!"  from  a  thousand  voices.) 
No,  gentlemen.  If  it  be  a  compact,  and  has  any  thing  sacred 
in  it,  we  are  bound  to  observe  it  in  good  faith  —  honestly, 
honorably  —  not  merely  to  the  letter,  but  fully  to  the  spirit, 
and  not  in  any  mincing,  half-way,  unfair,  or  illiberal  construc- 
tion, seeking  to  satisfy  the  letter,  and  to  give  as  little  as  we 
can,  and  to  defeat  the  spirit.  (Applause.)  Tliat  may  be  the 
way  some  men  keep  contracts  about  the  sale  of  a  house  or  a 
chattel,  but  it  io  not  the  way  that  honest  men  observe  contracts, 
even  in  relation  to  the  most  trivial  things.  (Cries  of  "  No," 
and  applause.) 

A  most  pernicious  course  has  been  pursued  at  the  North, 
tending  fatally  to  disturb  the  harmony  which  should  exist  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South,  and  to  break  down  and  destroy 
the  union  existing  between  these  States. 

At  an  early  period  the  subject  of  Slavery,  as  a  merely  philo- 
sophical question,  was  discussed  by  many,  and  its  justice  or 
injustice  made  the  subject  of  argument  leading  to  a  variety  of 
opinions.  It  mattered  little  how  long  this  discussion  should 
last,  while  confined  within  such  limits.  If  it  had  only  led  to 
the  formation  of  societies  like  the  Shakers,  who  do  not  believe 
in  matrimony ;  or  like  the  people  of  Utah,  destined  to  a  short 
career,  who  believe  in  too  much  of  it,  (laughter ;)  or  like  the 


Charles  O'Conor.  285 

strong-minded  women  of  our  country,  who  believe  that  women 
are  much  better  qualified  than  men  to  perform  the  functions 
and  offices  usually  performed  by  men,  (cheers  and  laughter,) 
and  who,  probably,  if  they  had  their  way,  would  simply  change 
the  order  of  proceedings,  and  transfer  the  husbands  to  the 
kitchen  and  themselves  to  the  labors  of  the  field,  (continued 
laughter;)  so  long,  I  say,  gentlemen,  as  this  sentimentality 
touching  Slavery  confined  itself  to  the  formation  of  little  parties 
or  societies  of  this  description,  it  certainly  could  do  no  harm, 
and  we  might  satisfy  ourselves  with  the  maxim,  that  "  error 
can  do  little  harm  as  long  as  reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it." 
(Applause.)  But,  gentlemen,  this  sentimentality  has  found 
its  way  out  of  the  meeting  houses,  out  of  the  assemblies  of 
speculative  philosophers,  or  societies  formed  to  benefit  the  in- 
habitants of  Borioboola-gha.  (Laughter  and  cheers.)  It  has 
found  its  way  into  the  heart  of  the  selfish  politician ;  it  has 
been  made  the  war-cry  of  party ;  it  has  been  made  an  instru- 
ment whereby  to  elevate,  not  merely  to  personal  distinction 
and  social  rank,  but  to  political  power.  Throughout  the  Non- 
slaveholding  States  of  this  Union  men  have  been  thus  elevated 
who  advocate  a  course  of  conduct  necessarily  exasperating  to 
the  South,  and  the  natural  effect  of  whose  teachings  renders 
the  Southern  people  insecure  in  their  lives  and  their  property, 
making  it  a  matter  of  doubt  each  night  whether  they  can  safely 
retire  to  their  slumbers  without  sentries  and  guards  to  protect 
them  against  incursions  fi'om  the  North.  I  say  the  eflTect  has 
been  to  elevate,  on  the  strength  of  this  sentiment,  such  men 
to  power.  And  what  is  the  result  —  the  condition  of  things 
at  this  day  ?  Why,  gentlemen,  the  occasion  that  calls  us  to- 
gether is  the  occurrence  of  an  assault  upon  the  State  of  Vir- 
ginia by  a  set  of  misguided  followers  of  these  doctrines,  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  bent  upon  rapine  and  murder.  I  call 
them  followers ;  they  should  be  deemed  leaders,  for  they  are 
the  best,  the  bravest,  the  most  virtuous  of  the  whole  Abolition 
party.  (Cheers,  and  cries  of  "  That's  so ! ")  Arrayed  on 
the  Lord's  day,  at  the  hour  of  still  repose,  with  pikes  brought 


286 


Charles  O  Conor. 


from  the  North,  they  armed  the  bondman  to  slay  his  master, 
his  master's  wife,  and  his  master's  little  children.  (Groanis.) 
Tliat  is  the  occasion  that  calls  us  together.  And  immediately 
succeeding  it  —  at  this  very  instant  —  what  do  we  find  to  be 
the  pending  political  question  in  Congress  ?  A  book,  encour- 
aging the  same  general  course  of  persecution  against  the  South 
that  has  been  long  pursued,  has  been  openly  recommended  to 
circulation  by  sixty-eight  members  of  your  Congress.  (Cx'ies 
of  "  Shame !  shame ! ")  Recommended  to  circulation  by  sixty- 
eight  members  of  your  Congress,  elected  from  the  Northern 
States.  (Renewed  cries  of  "  Shame ! "  and  "  We'll  put  them 
out!")  Every  one,  I  say,  elected  from  Non-slaveholding 
States.  And  with  the  assistance  of  certain  associates,  some  of 
whom  hold  their  offices  by  your  votes,  (cries  of  "  They  shan't 
be  there  long ! ")  there  is  great  danger  that  they  will  elect  to 
the  chair,  where  he  will  stand  as  a  representative  of  the  whole 
North,  a  man  who  united  in  causing  that  work  to  be  distributed 
through  the  vSouth,  carrying  poison  and  death  in  its  polluted 
leaves.  (Groans,  applause,  and  cries  of  "  Kick  him  out  of 
Congress ! ") 

Is  it  not  fair  to  say  that  this  great  and  glorious  Union  is 
menaced  when  such  a  thing  is  attempted  ?  Is  it  reasonable  to 
expect  that  our  brothers  of  the  South  will  calmly  sit  down  — 
(cries  of  "  No  ! ")  —  will  calmly  sit  down  and  submit  quietly 
to  such  an  outrage  ?  Gentlemen,  we  greatly  exceed  the  peo- 
ple of  the  South  in  numbers.  The  Non-slaveholding  States  are 
by  far  the  most  populous.  They  are  increasing  daily  in  num- 
bers and  in  population,  and  we  may  soon  overwhelm  the 
Southern  vote.  If  we  continue  to  fill  the  halls  of  legislation 
with  abolitionists,  and  permit  to  occupy  the  executive  chair 
public  men  who  declare  themselves  to  be  enlisted  in  a  crusade 
against  Slavery,  and  against  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution 
which  secure  slave  property  —  what  can  we  reasonably  expect 
from  the  people  of  the  South  but  that  they  will  pronounce  the 
Constitution,  with  all  its  glorious  associations  —  with  all  its 
bSLCtei  memories  —  this  Union,  with  its  manifold  present  and 


Charles  O'Conor. 


287 


promised  blessings,  an  unendurable  evil,  threatening  to  crush 
and  destroy  their  most  vital  interests  —  to  make  their  country 
a  wilderness  ?  Why  should  we  expect  them  to  submit  to  such 
a  line  of  conduct,  and  still  recognize  us  as  brothers,  or  agree  to 
the  perpetuation  of  this  Union  ?  (Applause.) 

I  do  not  see,  for  ray  part,  any  thing  unjust,  any  thing  unrea- 
sonable, in  the  declaration  of  Southern  members.  They  tell 
us,  "  If  you  will  thus  assail  us  with  incendiary  pamphlets  —  if 
you  will  thus  create  a  spirit  in  your  country  which  leads  to 
violence  and  bloodshed  among  us  —  if  you  will  assail  the  insti- 
tution upon  which  the  prosperity  of  our  country  depends  —  if 
you  will  elevate  to  office  over  us  men  who  are  pledged  to  aid 
in  such  transactions,  and  to  oppress  us  by  hostile  legislation, 
much  as  we  revere  the  Constitution,  greatly  as  we  estimate 
the  blessings  which  would  flow  from  its  faithful  enforcement 
we  can  not  longer  depend  on  your  compliance  with  its  injunc- 
tions, or  adhere  to  the  Union."  (Applause.) 

For  my  part,  gentlemen,  if  the  North  continues  to  conduct 
itself  in  the  selection  of  representatives  in  the  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  as,  perhaps,  from  a  certain  degree  of  negligence 
and  inattention,  it  has  heretofore  conducted  itself,  the  South,  I 
think,  is  not  to  be  censured  if  it  withdraws  from  the  associa- 
tion. (Cries  of  "  That  is  so,"  applause,  and  "  Three  cheers 
for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.") 

We  are  not,  gentlemen,  to  hold  a  meeting,  and  say  hut  "  we 
love  this  Union;  we  delight  in  it;  we  are  proud  of  it;  it 
blesses  us,  and  we  enjoy  it ;  we  shall  fill  all  its  offices  with 
men  of  our  own  choosing,  j:nd,  brethren  of  the  South,  you 
shall  enjoy  its  glorious  past ;  you  shall  enjoy  its  mighty  recol- 
lections, but  it  shall  trample  your  institutions  in  the  dust." 
We  have  no  right  to  say  it.  We  have  no  right  to  exact  so 
mucli ;  and  an  opposite  and  entirely  diffijrent  course,  fellow- 
citizens,  must  be  ours  —  must  be  the  course  of  the  great  North, 
if  we  would  preserve  this  Union.  (Applause,  and  cries  of 
«  Good  ! ") 

What  must  we  sacrifice  if  we  exasperate  our  brethren  of 


288 


Charles  O'Conor. 


the  South,  and  compel  them,  by  injustice  and  breach  of  com- 
pact, to  separate  from  us  and  dissolve  the  Union?  The 
greatness  and  the  glory  of  the  American  name  will  then  be  a 
thing  of  yesterday.  The  glorious  Revolution  of  the  Thirteen 
States  will  be  a  revolution,  not  achieved  by  us,  but  by  a  nation 
that  has  ceased  to  exist.  The  name  of  Washington  will,  at 
least  to  us  of  the  North,  (cheers)  be  but  as  the  name  of 
Julius  Csesar,  or  some  other  great  hero  who  has  lived  in  times 
gone  by,  whose  n'Ution  has  perished  and  exists  no  more.  The 
Declaration  of  Independence  —  what  will  that  be  ?  The  act 
of  a  state  that  no  longer  has  a  place  among  the  nations.  All 
the  bright  and  glorious  recollections  of  the  past  must  cease  to 
be  our  property,  and  become  mere  memorials  of  a  departed 
race  and  people.  Nor  will  these  be  the  only  consequences. 
Will  this  mighty  city,  growing,  as  it  now  is,  with  wealth  flow- 
ing into  it  from  every  portion  of  this  great  empire,  continue  to 
flourish  as  it  has  done  ?  ("  No ! ")  Will  your  marble  palaces, 
lining  Broadway,  and  roaring  their  proud  fronts  towards  the 
sky,  continue  to  increase,  until,  as  is  now  promised  under  the 
Union,  jt  shall  present  the  most  glorious  picture  of  wealth  and 
prosperity  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  (Cheers.)  No, 
gentlemen,  no ;  such  things  cannot  be.  I  do  not  say  that  we 
will  starve  —  that  we  will  perish  as  a  people  if  we  separate 
from  the  South.  If  the  line  be  ditiwn,  I  admit  they  will  have 
their  measure  of  prosperity  and  we  will  have  ours  —  but 
meagre,  small  in  the  extreme,  compared  with  what  is  existing 
and  promised  will  be  the  prosperity  of  each,  if  that  dire  event 
should  occur.  Truly  has  it  been  said  here  to-night,  we  were 
made  for  each  other.  Let  us  separate,  and  though  it  may  not 
destroy  either,  it  will  reduce  each  to  so  low  an  ebb  that  all 
good  men  would  deplore  the  evil  courses  that  brought  about 
such  a  result.  True,  we  would  have  left  to  boast  of  our  share 
of  the  glory  won  by  i-evolutionary  sires.  The  Northern  states 
sent  forth  their  bands  of  heroes,  and  shed  their  blood  as  freely 
as  those  of  the  South.  But  the  dividing  line  would  take  from 
us  the  grave  of  Washington.    (Cheers.)    It  is  in  his  own 


Charles  O'Conor. 


289 


beloved  Virginia.  It  is  in  the  State  and  near  the  spot  where 
this  treason  that  has  been  growing  up  in  the  North,  so  lately 
culminated  in  violence  and  bloodshed.  "We  would  lose  the 
grave  and  lose  all  connection  with  the  name  of  Washington  ; 
but  our  philanthropic  and  pious  friends  who  fain  would  lead  us 
to  this  result,  would  of  course  comfort  us  with  the  consoling 
reflection  that  we  had  the  glorious  memory  of  John  Brown  in 
its  place.  (Great  laughter  and  cheering.)  Are  you,  gentle- 
men, prepared  to  make  the  exchange  ?  (Renewed  cheering, 
intermingled  with  cries  of  "  No,  no  1 ")  Shall  the  tomb  of 
Washington,  that  rises  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  receiving 
its  tribute  from  every  nation  of  the  earth  —  shall  that  become 
the  property  of  a  foreign  state,  (cries*bf  "  No,  no  ")  —  a  state 
hostile  to  us  in  its  feelings,  and  we  to  it  in  ours  ?  Shall  we 
erect  a  monument  among  the  arid  hills  at  North  Elba,  and 
deem  the  privilege  of  making  pilgrimages  thither  a  recompense 
for  the  loss  of  every  glorious  recollection  connected  with  our 
Revolution,  and  for  our  severance  from  the  name  of  Washing- 
ton ?  (Loud  cheering.)  No,  gentlemen,  we  are  not  prepared, 
I  trust,  for  this  sad  exchange,  this  fatal  severance.  We  are 
not  prepared,  I  trust,  either  to  part  with  the  memories  of  our 
glorious  past,  or  to  give  up  the  advantages  of  our  present 
happy  condition.  We  are  not  prepared  to  involve  our  section 
in  tlie  losses,  the  deprivation  of  blessings  and  advantages  which 
would  necessarily  result  to  each  section  from  the  sentiment  of 
disunion,  were  it  unhappily  carried  into  effect  (Cheers.) 
We  never  would  have  attained  to  the  wealth  and  prosperity 
as  a  nation  which  is  now  ours,  but  for  oi  :  connection  with 
these  very  much  reviled  and  injured  Slaveholders.  If  a  disso- 
lution of  the  Union  is  to  take  place,  we  must  part  with  the 
trade  of  the  South,  and  thereby  surrender  our  participation  in 
the  wealth  of  the  South.  Nay,  more ;  we  are  told  upon  good 
authority  that  in  the  event  of  disunion,  we  will  part  not  only 
with  the  Slaveholding  States,  but  that  our  young  sister  with 
the  golden  crown,  rich,  teeming  California  —  she  who  added 
{h§  Iftst  final  requisite  to  our  greatness  as  a  nation,  will  not 
25 


290 


Cljarles  p*CQnor. 


cotpe  with  us,  but  will  remain  with  the  South.  (Cheers.) 
Gentlemen,  if  we  allow  this  course  of  injustice  towards  the 
South  to  be  continued,  these  are  most  assuredly  to  be  the  con- 
sequences—  evil  to  us,  evil  also  to  them.  Much  of  all  lliat 
we  are  most  proud  of-—  much  of  all  that  contributes  to  our 
greatness  and  prosperity  as  a  nation,  must  pass  away  from  us. 
Is  there  any  reason  why  we  should  allow  it  ?  There  is  a 
reason  preached  to  us  for  permitting  it.  We  are  told  that 
Slavery  is  unjust  "We  are  told  that  it  is  a  matter  of  conscience 
to  put  it  dor  'i?  and  that  whatever  treaties,  compacts,  laws,  or 
constitutions  x^ay  have  been  made  to  sanction  and  uphold  it, 
it  is  still  unhply,  and  that  we  are  bound  to  trample  on  these 
treaties,  compacts,  laws,  and  constitutions,  and  to  stand  by 
what  these  men  arrogantly  tell  us  is  the  lav  of  God,  and  a 
fundamental  printjiple  of  natural  justice. 

Indeed,  these  two  things  —  the  law  of  God  and  the  princi- 
ples of  natural  justice  —  are  not  distinguishable.  The  law  of 
God  and  natural  justice,  as  between  man  and  man,  are  one 
and  the  same  thing.  The  wisest  heathens  gave  the  rule  of 
conduct  between  man  and  man  in  these  few  M'ords :  I»ive  hon- 
estly, injure  no  man,  and  render  to  every  man  his  due.  In 
words  far  more  direct  and  emphatic,  in  words  of  perfect  com- 
prehensiveness, the  .Saviour  ga\se  us  the  same  rule  in  one 
brief  sentence :  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  (Cheers.) 
Now,  speaking  as  between  us,  people  of  the  North,  and  the 
people  of  the  South,  I  ask  you  to  act  on  this  rule  —  the  maxim 
of  the  heathen,  the  command  of  God :  Render  to  every  man 
his  due ;  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  Thus  should  we  act 
and  feel  tpwards  the  South,  ^pon  that  maxim,  which  came 
from  Him  of  Nazareth,  we  are  to  act  towards  the  South,  and 
without  putting  upon  it  any  new-fangled,  modern  interpreta- 
tion. But,  gentlemen,  the  question  is,  do  these  maxims  justify 
the  £jssertion  of  those  who  seek  to  invade  the  rights  of  the 
South  by  proclaiming  that  negro  slavery  is  unjust.  That  is 
the  point  to  Which  this  great  jjrgument,  involving  the  fate  of 
our  Union,  must  jipw  conje.   Is  negro,  slavery  unjust?    Jf  it 


Charles  O'Conor.  291 

violates  that  great  rule  of  human  conduct.  Render  to  every 
man  his  due,  it  is  unjust.  If  it  violates  the  law  of  God,  which 
says,  "  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  it  is  unjust.  And,  gen- 
tlemen, if  it  could  be  maintained  that  negro  slavery  is  thus  in 
conflict  with  the  law  of  nature  and  the  law  of  God,  I  might  be 
prepared  —  perhaps  we  should  all  be  prepared  —  to  go  with 
a  distinguished  man,  to  whom  allusion  is  frequently  made,  and 
say,  there  is  a  higher  law  which  compels  us  to  disregai-d  the 
Constitution  and  trample  it  beneath  our  feet  as  a  wicked  and 
unholy  compact.  And  this  is  the  question  which  we  must  now 
meet,  and  which  we  must  finally  determine  for  ourselves,  and 
on  which  we  must  come  to  a  conclusion  that  must  govern  us 
hereafter  in  the  selection  of  representatives  in  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States.  I  insist  that  negro  slavery  is  not  unjust. 
(Cries  of  "  Bravo ! ")  It  is  not  only  not  unjust,  but  it  is  just, 
wise,  and  beneficent.*  (Applause  and  loud  hisses ;  cries  of 
"  Bravo !  "  and  disorder.  There  being  a  strong  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  audience  to  eject  the  offending  parties, 
Mayor  Tiemann  demanded  order,  ai  d  called  on  the  audience 
to  allow  the  individuals  to  remain.    Mr.  O'Conor  did  likewise.) 

Mayor  Tiemann.  Gentlemen :  If  any  body  hisses  here, 
you  must  remember  that  every  one  has  a  peculiar  mode  of  ex- 
pressing himself,  and  as  the  gentleman  seems  to  understand 
hissing,  let  him  hiss.    (Loud  cheers.) 

Mr.  O'CoNOK.  Gentlemen:  There  is  an  animal  upon  this 
earth  that  has  no  faculty  for  making  his  sentiments  known  in  any 
other  way  than  by  hissing.  (Cheers.)  I  am  for  equal  rights. 
(A  voice :  "  Three  cheers  for  Henry  A.  "Wise."    Loud  cheers, 

♦When  Mr.  O'Conor  first  announced  that  he  believed  negro  "slavery"'  just  and- 
right,  hisses  arose  from  nearly  all  quarters  of  the  liouRe,  and  for  a  moment  we  trembled 
lest  the  mighty  truths  ho  was  uttering  were  fallir.g  upon  a  generation  not  prepared  to 
receive  them ;  but  this  doubt  existed  only  for  a  moment,  for  cheer  after  cheer  —  three 
times  three,  in  fact  —  reverberated  through  the  noble  and  spacious  building,  until  all 
opposition  was  drowned.  Nothing  was  left  but  a  Fpontaneous  burst  of  enthusiasm  for 
the  bold  speaker  who  thus  dared  to  face,  what  it  has  been  presumed  was  public  opin- 
ion, but  which,  as  wo  have  often  contended,  is  not  the  case.  It  only  neede<I  a  bold 
man,  a  true  man,  a  patriotic  man,  to  stem  this  tide  of  Abolition  delusion.  Charles 
O'Conor  has  done  it.  Without  his  speech,  the  meeting  would  have  been  a  liijlure,-- 
Ifew  York  Day  Book,  December  21. 


Charles  O'Conor. 


followed  by  groans  and  hisses.)  I  beg  of  you,  gentlemen,  all 
of  you,  at  least,  who  are  of  my  opinion,  to  preserve  silence, 
and  to  leave  the  hissing  animal  the  full  enjoyment  of  his 
natural  privilege.  (Cries  of  "Good!")  The  first  of  our 
race  that  offended  was  taught  to  do  so  by  that  hissing  animal ; 
the  first  human  society  tliat  ever  was  broken  up  througli  sin 
and  discord  had  its  happy  union  dissolved  by  the  entrance  of 
that  animal.  (Great  cheering  and  laughter.)  Therefore,  I 
say,  it  is  his  privilege  to  hiss.  Let  liim  hiss  on.  (Cheers.) 
But,  gentlemen,  I  will  not  detain  you  much  longer.  (Cries 
of  "  Go  on ! ")  I  maintain  that  negro  slavery  is  not  unjust. 
(Cheers.)  That  it  is  benign  in  its  influences,  both  on  the  white 
man  and  on  the  black.  (A  voice  —  "  That  is  so.")  I  maintain 
that  it  is  ordained  by  Nature  —  that  it  is  a  necessity  of  both 
races  —  that  in  the  climates  where  the  black  race  can  live  and 
prosper,  Nature  hei'self  enjoins  correlative  duties  on  the  black 
man  and  the  white  —  which  cannot  be  performed  except  by 
the.  preservation,  and,  if  the  hissing  gentlemen  please,  by  the 
perpetuation,  of  negro  slavery.  (Voices,  "  That  is  right." 
Cries  of  "  Good,"  and  cheers.)  I  am  justified  in  this  opinion 
by  the  highest  tribunal  in  our  country  —  that  venerable  expo- 
nent of  our  institutions  and  of  our  principles  of  justice  —  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  That  court  has  held  on 
this  subject  what  wise  men  will  ever  pronounce  to  be  sound 
and  just  doctrine.  There  are  some  principles  well  known  and 
well  understood,  universally  recognized  and  universally  ac- 
knowledged among  men,  which  are  not  to  be  found  written  in 
constitutions  or  in  laws.  The  people  of  the  United  States,  at 
the  formation  of  our  government,  were,  as  they  still  are,  in 
some  sense,  peculiar,  and  radically  distinguishable  from  other 
nations.  We  were  white  men,  of  what  is  called,  by  way  of 
distinction,  the  Caucasian  race.  We  were  a  monogamous 
people ;  that  is  to  say,  we  were  not  Mohammedans,  or  followers 
of  Joe  Smith,  with  half  a  dozen  wives  apiece.  It  was  a  fun- 
damental principle  of  our  civilization,  that  no  State  could  be 
tolerated  or  exist  in  this  Union  which  would  not,  in  that 


Charles  O'Conor. 


293 


respect,  resemble  all  the  other  States  of  the  Union.  Some 
other  distinctive  features  might  be  stated  which  serve  to  mark 
us  as  a  people  distinct  from  others,  and  incapable  of  associating 
on  terms  of  perfect  political  equality,  or  social  equality,  as 
friends  and  fellow-citizens,  with  certain  classes  of  men  that  are 
to  be  found  on  the  earth's  surface.  As  a  white  nation,  we 
made  our  Constitution  and  our  laws,  vesting  all  political  rights 
in  that  race;  they  constituted  in  every  political  sense  the 
American  people.  (Cheers.)  As  to  the  negto,  we  allowed 
him  to  live  under  the  shadow  and  protection  of  our  laws.  We 
gave  him,  as  we  were  bound  to  give  him,  protection ;  but  we 
denied  to  him  political  rights  or  the  power  to  govern.  We 
lefl  him  for  as  long  a  period  as  the  community  in  which  he 
dwelt  should  order  in  the  condition  of  bondman.  (Applause.) 
To  that  condition  the  negro  is  assigned  by  nature.  (Cries  of 
"  Bravo!  "  and  cheers.)  Experience  has  shown  that  his  class 
cannot  prosper  save  in  warm  climates.  In  a  cold  or  even  a 
moderately  cold  climate  he  soon  perishes ;  in  the  extremely 
warm  regions  his  race  is  perpetuated,  and  with  proper  guar- 
dianship, may  prosper.  He  has  ample  strength,  and  is  com- 
petent to  labor,  but  nature  denies  to  him  either  the  intellect  to 
govern  or  the  willingness  to  work.  Both  are  denied  him. 
But  that  same  power  which  deprived  him  of  the  will  to  labor, 
gav©  him,  in  our  country,  as  a  recompense,  a  master  to  coerce 
that  duty  and  convert  him  into  a  valuable  and  useful  servant. 
(Cheers.)  I  contend  that  it  is  not  injustice  to  leave  the  negro 
in  the  condition  in  which  nature  placed  him,  and  for  which 
condition  he  is  adapted.  Fitted  only  for  a  state  of  pupilage, 
our  slave  system  gives  him  a  master  to  govern  him  and  supply 
his  deficiencies ;  and  in  this  there  is  no  injustice.  Neither  is 
it  injustice  in  the  master  to  compel  him  to  labor  and  thereby 
afford  to  that  master  a  just  compensation  in  return  for  the 
care  and  talent  employed  in  governing  him.  In  this  way 
alone  is  the  negro  able  to  render  himself  useful  to  himself  and 
to  the  society  in  which  he  is  placed. 
These  are  the  principles,  gentlemen,  which  the  extreme 
25* 


294 


Charles  O'Conor. 


measures  of  Abolitionism  and  its  abettors  compel  us  to  enforce^ 
This  is  the  ground  that  we  must  take,  or  abandon  our  cherished 
Union.  We  must  no  longer  favor  political  leaders  who  talk 
about  Slavery  being  an  evil ;  nor  must  we  advance  the  inde- 
fensible doctrine  that  negro  slavery  is  a  thing  which,  although 
pernicious,  is  to  be  tolerated  merely  because  we  have  made  a 
bargain  to  tolerate  it.  We  must  turn  away  from  the  teachings 
of  fanaticism.  We  must  look  at  negro  slavery  as  it  is,  remem- 
bering that  the  voice  of  inspiration  as  found  in  the  sacred 
volume,  nowhere  condemns  the  bondage  of  those  who  are  fit 
only  for  bondage.  Yielding  to  the  decree  of  nature  and  the 
voice  of  sound  philosophy,  we  must  pronounce  that  institution 
just,  beneficent,  lawful,  and  proper.  The  Constitution  estab- 
lished by  the  fathers  of  our  republic,  which  recognized  it, 
must  be  preserved  and  maintained ;  and  that  both  may  stand 
together,  we  must  maintain  that  neither  the  institution  itself, 
or  the  Constitution  which  upholds  it,  is  wicked  or  unjust,  but 
that  each  is  sound  and  wise,  and  entitled  to  our  fullest  support. 
We  must  visit  with  our  execration  every  man  claiming  our 
suffrages  who  objects  to  enforce,  with  entire  good  faith,  the 
provisions  of  the  Constitution  in  favor  of  Slavery,  or  who  seeks, 
by  any  indirection,  to  withhold  its  protection  from  the  South, 
or  to  avoid  its  obligations  upon  the  North.  Let  us  support  no 
man  for  public '  ofl&ce  whose  speech  or  action  tends  to  induce 
assaults  upon  the  territory  of  our  Southern  neighbors,  or  to 
generate  insurrectioa  within  their  borders.  (Loud  cheers,  and 
cries  of  «  Good ! ") 

These  are  the  principles  upon  which  we  must  act.  This  is 
what  we  must  say  to  our  brethren  of  the  South.  If  we  have 
sent  men  to  Congress  who  are  false  to  these  views,  and  are 
seeking  to  violate  the  compact  which  binds  us  together,  we 
must  ask  to  be  forgiven  until  we  have  another  chance  to  mani- 
fest our  will  at  the  ballot  boxes.  We  must  tell  the  South  that 
these  men  shall  be  consigned  to  privacy,  (applause)  •—  and  that 
true  men,  men  faithful  to  the  Constitution,  men  loving  all  por- 
tions of  the  country  alike,  shall  be  elected  in  their  stead. 


Charles  O'Conor. 


And,  gentlenSen,  we  must  doi  more  than  promise  this;  we 
must  perform  it.  (Loud  applause,  followed  by  three  cheers 
for  Mr.  O'Conor,  and  a  tiger.)  But  a  word  more,  gentlemen, 
and  I  have  done.  (Cries  of  "  Go  on.")  I  have  no  doubt  at 
all  that  what  I  have  said  to  you  this  evening  will  be  greatly 
misrepresented.  It  is  very  certain  that  I  have  not  had  time 
enough  properly  to  enlarge  upon,  and  fully  to  explain  the 
interesting  topics  on  which  I  have  ventured  to  expi-tess  myselif 
thus  boldly  and  distinctly,  taking  upon  myself  the  consequences, 
be  they  what  they  may.  (Applause.)  But  I  will  say  a  few 
words  by  way  of  explanation.  I  have  maintained  the  justice 
of  Slavery ;  I  have  maintained  it  because  I  hold  that  the  negro 
is  decreed  by  nature  to  a  state  of  pupilage  under  the  doriinioa 
of  the  wiser  white  man  in  every  clime  where  God  and  nature 
meant  that  the  negro  should  live  at  all.  (Applause.)  I  say 
a  state  of  pupilage ;  and  that  I  may  be  rightly  undei'stood,  I 
say  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  white  man  to  treat  him  kindly  — 
that  it  is  the  interest  of  the  white  man  to  treat  him  kindly. 
(Applause.)  And,  further,  it  is  my  belief  that  if  the  white 
man,  in  States  where  slavery  exists,  be  not  interfered  with 
by  tlie  fanatics  who  are  now  creating  these  disturbances,  what- 
ever laws,  whatever  improvements,  whatever  variations  in  the 
conduct  of  society  are  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  enforcing 
in  every  instance  the  dictates  of  interest  and  humanity,  as 
between  the  white  man  and  the  black,  will  be  faithfully  and 
fairly  carried  out  in  the  progress  of  that  improvement  in  all 
these  things  in  which  we  are  aH  progressing.  It  is  not  pre- 
tended that  the  master  has  a  right  to  slay  his  slave ;  it  is  not 
pretended  that  he  has  a  right  to  be  guilty  of  harshness  and 
inhumanity  to  his  slave.  The  laws  of  all  the  Southern  States 
forbid  that.  We  have  not  the  right  here  at  the  North  to  be 
guilty  of  cruelty  to  a  horse.  It  is  an  indictable  offence  to 
commit  such  cruelty.  The  same  laws  exist  in  the  South,  and 
if  there  is  any  failure  in  enforcing  them  to  the  fullest  extent, 
it  is  due  to  this  external  force  which  is  pressing  upon  the 
Seuthern  States,  and,  compels  them  to  abstain,  perhaps,  from 


296 


Charles  O'Conor. 


many  acts  beneficent  towards  the  negro,  which  otherwise  would 
be  performed.  (Applause.)  In  truth,  in  fact,  in  deea  —  in 
truth,  in  fact,  in  deed,  the  white  ma:i  in  the  Shiveholding  States 
has  no  more  authority  by  the  law  of  the  land  over  his  slave 
than  our  laws  allow  to  a  father  over  his  minor  children.  He 
can  no  more  violate  humanity  with  respect  to  them  than  a  I 
father  in  any  of  the  Free  States  of  this  Union  can  exercise  acts 
violative  of  humanity  over  his  own  son  under  the  age  of , 
twenty-one.  So  far  as  the  lav/  is  concerned,  you  own  your 
boys,  and  have  a  right  to  their  services  until  they  are  twenty-; 
one.  You  can  make  them  work  for  you ;  you  can  hire  out 
their  services  and  take  their  earnings ;  you  have  the  right  to 
chastise  them  with  judgment  and  reason  if  they  violate  your 
commands ;  and  they  are  entirely  without  political  rights.. 
Not  one  of  them  at  the  age  of  twenty  years  and  eleven  months 
even  can  go  to  the  polls  and  give  a  vote.  Therefore,  gentle- 
men, before  the  law,  there  is  but  one  difference  between  the 
free  white  man  of  twenty  years  of  age  in  the  Northern  States, 
and  the  negro  bondman  in  the  Southern  States.  The  white 
man  is  to  be  emancipated  at  twenty-one,  because  his  God-given 
intellect  entitles  him  to  emancipation  and  fits  him  for  the 
duties  to  devolve  upon  him.  The  negro,  to  be  sure,  is  a  bond- 
man for  life.  He  may  be  sold  from  one  master  to  another, 
but  whei'e  is  the  ill  in  that?  —  one  may  be  as  good  as  another. 
If  there  be  laws  with  respect  to  the  mode  of  sale,  which,  by 
separating  man  and  wife,  do  occasionally  lead  to  that  which 
shocks  humanity,  and  may  be  said  to  violate  all  propriety  and 
all  conscience  —  if  such  things  are  done,  let  the  South  alone, 
and  they  will  correct  the  evil.  Let  our  brethren  of  the  South 
take  care  of  their  own  domestic  institutions,  and  they  will  do 
it.  (Applause.)  They  will  so  govern  themselves  as  to  sup  • 
press  acts  of  this  description,  if  they  are  occasionally  committed, 
as  perhaps  they  are,  and  we  must  all  admit  that  they  are  con- 
trary to  all  just  conceptions  of  right  and  humanity.  I  have 
never  yet  heard  of  a  nation  conquered  from  evil  practices, 
brought  to  the  light  of  civilization,  or  brought  to  the  light  of 


297 


religion  and  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  by  the  bayonet,  by 
penal  laws,  or  by  external  persecutions  of  any  kind.  It  is  not 
by  declamation  and  outcry  against  a  people  from  those  abroad 
and  outside  of  their  territory  that  you  can  improve  their  man- 
ners or  their  morals  in  any  respect.  No ;  if,  standing  oufeide 
of  their  territory,  you  attack  the  errors  of  a  people,  you  make 
them  cling  to  their  faults.  From  a  sentiment  somewhat 
excusable  —  akin  to  self-respect  and  patriotisni- — they  will 
resist  their  nation's  enemy. 

Let  our  brethrien  of  the  South  alone,  gentlemen  ;  and  if 
there  be  any  errors  of  this  kind,  they  will  correct  them.  There 
is  but  one  way  in  which  you  can  thus  leave  them  to  the  guid- 
ance of  their  own  judgment,  by  which  you  can  retain  them  in 
this  Union  as  our  brethren,  and  perpetuate  this  glorious  Union ; 
and  that  is,  by  resolving  —  without  reference  to  the  political 
party  or  faction  to  which  any  one  of  you  may  belong ;  without 
reference  to  the  name,  political  or  otherwise,  which  you  may 
please  to  bear  —  resolving  that  the  man,  be  he  who  he  may, 
who  advocates  the  doctrine  that  negro  slavery  is  unjust^  and 
ought  to  be  assailed  or  legislated  against,  or  v<ho  agitates  the 
subject  of  extinguishing  negro  slavery  in  any  of  its  forms  as  a 
political  hobby,  that  that  man  shall  be  denied  your  suffrages, 
and  not  only  denied  your  suffrages,  but  that  you  will  select 
from  the  ranks  of  the  opposite  party,  or  your  own,  if  necessary, 
the  man  you  like  least,  who  entertains  opposite  sentiments, 
but  through  whose  instrumentality  you  may  be  enabled  to 
defeat  his  election,  and  to  secure  in  the  councils  of  the  nation 
men  who  are  true  to  the  Constitution,  who  are  lovers  of  the 
Union  —  men  who  cannot  be  induced  by  considerations  of 
imaginary  benevolence  for  people  who  really  do  not  desire 
their  aid,  to  sacrifice  or  to  jeopard  in  any  degree  the  blessings 
we  eiy'oy  under  this  Union.  May  it  be  perpetual.  (Great 
and  continued  cheering.) 

Three  cheers  were  given  for  the  State  of  Virginia. 


298 


Charles  O'Conor.^ 


Mr.  O'Conor,  in  response  to  a  Letter  from,  a  Comiiiittee  of  Merchants 
asking  for  a  corrected  copy  of  bis  Speech,  made  the  following  reply : 

New  Yobk,  Dec.  20,  1859. 

GBNTitaMBN :  The  measure  you  propose  meets  my  entire  approval. 

I  have  long  thought  that  our  disputes  concerning  Negro  Slavery 
■would  soon  tennina^j  if  the  public  mind  could  be  drawn  to  the  true 
issue,  and  steadily  fixed  upon.  it>  To  effect  this  object  was  the  sole 
aim  of  my  address. 

Though  its  muiisters  can  never  permit  the  law  of  the  land  to  be 
questioned  by  private  judgment,  there  is,  nevertheless,  such  a  thing  as 
natural  justice.  Natural  justice  has  the  Divine  sanction ;  and  it  is 
impossible  that  any  human  law  which  conflicts  with  it  should  long 
endure. 

"Where  mental  enlightenment  abounds,  where  morality  is  professed 
"by  all,  where  the  mind  is  free,  speech  is  free,  and  the  press  is  free,  is  it 
possible,  in  the  nature  of  thiogs,  that  a  law  which  is  admitted  to  con- 
flict with  natural  justice,  and  with  God's  own  mandate,  should  long 
endure  ? 

Yet  all  will  admit  that,  within  certain  limits,  at  least,  our  Constitu- 
tion does  contain  positive  guarantees  for  the  preservation  of  Negro 
Slavery  in  the  old  States  through  all  time,  unless  the  local  legislatures 
shall  think  fit  to  abolish  it.  And,  consequently,  if  Negro  Slavery, 
however  humanely  administered  or  judiciously  regulated,  be  an  insti- 
tution which  conflicts  with  natural  justice  and  with  God's  law,  surely 
the  most  vehement  and  extreme  admirers  of  John  Brown's  sentiments 
are  right ;  and  their  denunciations  against  the  Constitution,  and  against 
the  most  hallowed  nnmes  connected  with  it,  are  perfectly  justifiable. 

The  friends  of  trutu  —  the  patriotic  Americans  who  would  sustain 
their  country's  honor  against  foreign  rivalry,  and  defend  their  country's 
interests  against  all  assailants,  err  greatly  when  they  contend  with 
these  men  on  any  point  but  one.  Their  general  principles  cannot  be 
refuted ;  their  logic  is  irresistible ;  the  error,  if  any  there  be,  is  in  their 
premises.  They  assert  that  Negro  Slavery  is  unjust.,  This,  and  this 
alone,  of  all  they  say,  is  canable  of  being  fairly  argued  against. 

If  this  proposition  cannot  be  refuted,  our  Union  cannot  endure,  and 
it  ought  not  to  endure. 

Our  negro  bondmen  can  neither  be  exterminated  nor  transported  to 
Africa.  They  are  too  numerous  for  either  process,  and  either,  if  prac- 
ticable,  would  involve  a  violation  of  humanity.  If  they  were  emanci- 
pated, they  would  relapse  into  barbarism,  or  a  set  of  negro  States 
would  arise  in  our  midst  possessing  political  equality,  and  entitled  to 
social  equality.   The  division  of  parties  would  soon  make  the  negro 


Charles  O'Conor. 


members  a  powerful  body  in  Congress  —  Tvould  place  some  of  them  in 
high  political  stations,  and  occasionally  let  one  into  the  Executive  chair. 

It  is  vain  to  say  that  this  could  be  endured ;  it  is  simply  impossible. 

What,  then,  remains  to  be  discussed  > 

The  negro  race  is  upon  us.  "With  a  Constitution  which  holds  them 
in  bondage,  our  Federal  Union  might  be  preserved ;  but  if  so  holding 
them  in  bondage  be  a  thing  forbidden  by  God  and  Nature,  we  cannot 
lawfully  so  hold  them,  and  the  Union  must  perish. 

This  is  the  inevitable  result  of  that  conflict  which  has  now  reached 
its  climax. 

Amongst  us  at  the  North,  the  sole  question  for  reflection,  study,  and 
friendly  interchange  of  thought,  should  be  —  is  Negro  Slavery  unjust  ? 
The  rational  and  dispassionate  inquirer  will  find  no  difficulty  in  arriving 
at  my  conclusion.  It  is  fit  and  proper ;  it  is,  in  its  own  nature,  as  an 
institution,  beneficial  to  both  races ;  and  the  effect  of  this  assertion  is 
not  diminished  by  our  admitting  that  many  faults  are  practised  under 
it.  Is  not  such  the  fact  in  respect  to  all  human  laws  and  institutions  ^ 
I  am,  gentlemen,  with  great  resnect,  yours  truly. 


HoTV  TO  Save  the  Union. 


"Chariestown,  Va.,  Nov.  23. 
«  Last  night  at  nine  o'clock,  an  alarm  was  given  by  ono  of  tlio  sontineis  firing  his 
rifle.  Military  orders  were  soanded  from  one  end  of  the  town  to  the  othcrj  and  caused 
very  great  panic  among  women  and  children,  and  some  men  whoso  nervous  fiystems 
have  become  mnch  disordered  by  late  events.  ShutterR  were  closed,  and  lights 'extin> 
Ruisbed,  in  qnick  time.  Tbeexcitement  contlnned  until  ten  o'clock,  when  it  was  ascer* 
taiaed  that  the'  sentinel  Iiad  mistaken  a  cow  f(ir  n  man ;  that  he  clialtenged  her;  that 
she  \TonId  not  bait,  and  ho  fired.'' — Tdegraphic  Vtspatckts  oj  Uie  AiiociatiU  Press. 

With  blatant  month,  -^rhen  next  the  South 

With  dire  Disunion  threats  the  North, 
The  tie  to  save  shall  from  the  grave 

The  mighty  dead  be  summoned  forth  T ' 
No,  let  them  lie,  we  need  not  try 

A  plan  so  grim  and  ghostly  now, 
Since  well  we  know  an  ox's  low 

Appals  a  State  that  dreads  a  cow ; 
Since  we've  been  told  that  warriors  bold 

Their  weeping  wives  at  Richmond  left, 
To  boldly  go  and  face  a  foe 

Who  savage  shrubs  of  leaves  bereft, 
No  wizard's  wand  to  raise  a  band 

Of  patriots  long  since  dead  need  we. 
To  keep  one  flag  or  take  the  brag 

Oat  of  the  Southern  Chivalry. 
Ah,  no  1  to  save  that  fragile  form,  — 
The  Vnlun,  —  or  to  lull  the  storm 
Of  Civil  Wars  when  they  impend, 
A  simple  course  I  recommend : 
Crush  the  Slave  States  1  With  blood  imbme  them  ? 
No :  drive  a  herd  of  oxen  through  them. 

Jaues  Beppath. 


» 


NON-RESISTANTS. 


26 


•'It  •was  much  —  a  very  notable  interposition  of  Providence  in 
John  Brown's  behalf —  that  he  was  led  out  from  the  influence  of  the 
church  as  far  as  the  upholding  of  Slavery  was  concerned ;  that  he  was 
plucked,  as  a  brand  from  the  burning,  out  of  this  department  of  her 
snares.  But  her  mischievous  doctrine  that  the  true  God  is  the  '  God 
of  battles'— -that  the  universal  Father  is  the  '  Lord  of  hosts,'  author- 
izing some  of  his  children  to  hang,  behead,  stab,  and  shoot  others  — 
this  detestable  doctrine  the  church  had  instilled  into  him  so  effectually 
that  he  never  escaped  from  it.  And  he  probably  never  took  pains 
even  to  look  at  the  question  of  non*resistance  as  ar.  open  question ; 
a  doctrine  that  might,  perhaps,  be  true ;  a  principle  which  might,  as 
its  advocates  declared,  lie  at  the  very  root  of  Christianity.  Nothing, 
then,  could  be  more  unjust  thau  to  judge  him  by  the  same  standard  as 
if  he  had  recognized  this  principle.  We  cannot  have  grapes  from 
thorns,  nor  figs  from  thistles.  But  we  can,  we  must  say,  that,  so  far 
as  his  light  extended,  John  Brown  nobly,  gloriously,  did  his  duty  to 
the  slave." 


I. 


John  G.  Whittier  and  Wm.  Lloyd  Garrison. 


HENEVER  an  heroic  act  is  done  in  Freedom's  cause 


V  T  or  name,  every  one  naturally  turns  to  John  G.  Whittier 
for  a  song  fit  to  celebrate  and  consecrate  it.  Many  eyes  were 
directed  to  him  when  John  Brown  fell ;  and  many  eyes  were 
filled  with  tears  when  the  poet  spoke.  For  the  noble  veteran 
singer  sadly  disappointed  them;  and  murmurs  of  injustice 
filled  the  homes  of  the  old  warrior's  friends.  I  have  been 
spared  the  labor  and  pains  of  criticising  Whittier  in  this  in- 
stance, by  one  whose  devotion  to  Freedom  and  opposition  to 
war  no  man  doubts  —  William  Lloyd  Garrison ;  whose  com- 
ments, (as  they  appeared  in  the  "  Liberator,")  I  append  to 


BROWN  OF  OSAWATOMIE. 

John  Beown  of  Osawatomie 

Spake  on  his  dying  day : 
•♦I  will  not  have,  to  shrive  my  soul, 

A  priest  in  Slavery's  pay ; 
But,  let  some  poor  slave-mother, 

"Whom  I  have  striven  to  free, 
"With  her  children,  from  the  gallows-stair, 

Put  up  a  prayer  for  me ! " 

John  Brown  of  Osawatomie, 

They  led  him  out  to  die ; 
And,  lo !  —  a  poor  slave  mother 

With  her  little  child  pressed  nigh. 


the  verses  of  the  anti-slavery  poet : 


(308) 


304  Whittier  and  Garrifon. 

Then  the  bold,  blue  eye  grew'  tender, 
And  the  old,  harsh  face  grew  mild, 

As  he  stooped  between  the  jeering  t&iik? 
And  kissed  the  negro's  child  I 

The  shadows  of  his  stormy  life 

That  moment  fell  apart : 
"Without,  the  rash  and  bloody  hand, 

Within,  the  loving  heart. 
That  kiss,  from  all  its  guilty  means, 

Hedeemed  the  good  intent. 
And  round  the  grisly  fighter's  hair 

The  Martyr's  aureole  bent ! 

I'erish  with  him  the  folly 

That  seeks  through  evil,  good  j 
Long  live  the  generous  purpose 

Unstained  with  human  blood ! 
Not  the  raid  of  midnight  terror. 

But  the  thought  which  underlies ; 
Not  the  outlaw's  pride  of  daring. 

But  the  Christian's  sacrifice. 

O !  never  may  yon  blue-ridged  hills 

The  Northern  rifle  hear. 
Nor  see  the  light  of  blazing  homes 

Flash  on  the  negro's  spear. 
But  let  the  free-winged  angel  Truth 

Their  guarded  passes  scale, 
To  teach  that  Right  is  more  than  Jlight 

And  Justice  more  than  Mail  I 

So  vainly  shall  Virginia  set 

Her  battle  in  array ; 
la  vain  her  trampling  squadrons  knead 

The  winter  snow  with  clay. 
She  may  strike  the  pouncing  eagle, 

But  she  dare  not  harm  the  dove  J 
And  every  gate  she  bam  to  Hate 

Shall  open  wide  to  Love ! 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


THE  CRITICISM  OP  GARRISON. 
We  have  copied  into  our  poetical  department,  from  the  New 
York  " Independent"  some  lines  on  John  Brown  of  Osawato- 
mie,  from  the  pen  of  our  gifted  friend,  John  G.  "Whittier ;  but, 
though  the  sentiment  is  gracefully  expressed,  we  think  tliere 
is  not  the  same  magnanimous  recognition  of  the  liberty-loving 
heroism  of  John  Brpwn,  which  is  found  in  many  of  the  poet's 
effusions  relating  to  the  war-like  struggle  of  1776,  and  "our 
revolutionary  fathers."    For  example  —  he  speaks  of  "the 
rash  and  bloody  hand" — the  "guilty  means  "  with  "the  good 
intent"  —  " the  grisly  fighter's  hair "  —  "the  folly  that  seeks 
through  evil  good"  —  "the  raid  of  midnight  terror"  —  "the 
outlaw's  pride  of  daring,"  &c.    There  is  an  apparent  invidi- 
ousness  or  severity  of  imputation  in  these  epithets,  which  does 
not  seem  to  be  called  for,  i  hough  softened  by  some  approving 
allusions  in  close  juxtaposition.    Let  such  of  us  as  are  believ- 
ers in  the  doctrines  of  peace  be  careful  to  award  to  John 
Brown  at  least  as  much  •credit  as  we  do  to  a  Joshua  or  Gideon, 
a  Washington  or  Warren,  and  especially  not  to  do  him  the 
slightest  injustice.     Though  he  was  far  from  being  a  non- 
resistant,  yet  he  was  not  a  man  of  violence  and  blood,  in  a  law- 
less sense,  any  more  than  those  Jewish  and  American  heroes ; 
and  if  no  reproachful  epithets  ought  to  be  cast  upon  their 
memories,  none  ought  to  be  cast  upon  his.    In  all  that  consti- 
tutes moral  grandeur  of  character,  and  entire  disinterestedness 
of  action,  he  was  their  superior.   He  perilled  all  that  was  dear 
to  him,  not  to  achieve  liberty  for  himself,  or  those  of  his  own 
complexion,  but  to  break  the  fetters  of  a  race  "  not  colored  like 
his  own,"  most  wickedly  abhorred,  universally  proscribed,  and 
subjected  to  a  bondage  full  of  unutterable  woe  and  horror. 
But,  even  in  their  behalf,  he  sought  no  retaliation  nor  re- 
venge, but  only  (if  possible)  a  peaceful  exodus  from  Virginia. 
He  explicitly  declared  to  the  Court,  "  I  never  had  any  de- 
sign against  the  liberty  of  any  person,  nor  any  disposition  to 
commit  treason  or  destroy  property,  or  to  excite  or  to  incite 
slaves  to  rebellion,  or  to  make  insurrection."    And  what  fair- 
26* 


3o6 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


minded  man  doubts  the  word  of  John  Brown  ?  His  weapons 
were  purely  for  self-defence  on  the  part  of  the  flying  bondmen 

—  an  extremity,  which,  eighteen  centuries  after  Christ,  justi- 
fies their  use  in  the  belief  of  Catholic  and  Protestant  Christen- 
dom, and  in  accordance  with  the  common  law^  of  the  world. 
He  was  of  such  stuff  as  the  Waldenses  and  Albigenses,  the 
Scotch  Covenanters,  the  Smithfield  Martyrs,  the  Mayflower 
Pilgrims,  were  composed ;  apparently  as  true  to  his  convic- 
tions of  duty  towards  God,  as  any  man  who  ever  walked  the 
earth  before  him.  This  does  not  prove  that  he  did  well  to 
rely  on  some  other  thau  spiritual  weapons  for  the  success  of 
his  plan  ;  but  it  does  demand  that  the  fullest  justice  should  be 
done  to  his  character,  and  that  every  reference  to  him  should 
be  as  respectful  and  as  appreciative  as  to  any  of  the  patriots 
and  martyrs  to  whom  all  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth  bow 
down  in  homage.  Every  man  who  votes  to  uphold  (as  does 
the  Quaker  poet  himself)  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts 
and  the  American  Constitution,  votes  tb  uphold  the  war  si/stem 

—  army,  navy,  militia,  with  all  their  accompaniments;  and  no 
such  person,  therefore,  can  consistently  speak  of  "  the  rash  and 
bloody  hand "  of  John  Brown,  nor  of  "  the  folly  that  seeks 
through  evil  good,"  —  that  is,  that  seeks  to  emancipate  the  en- 
slaved, peaceably  if  it  can,  forcibly  if  it  must. 

Possibly,  before  entering  Harper's  Ferry,  John  Brown  had 
been  reading  the  following  soul-stirring  lines  of  Whittier,  — - 
giving  them  a  more  literal  interpretation  than  the  poet  in- 
tended : 

"  Speak  out  in  acts.'  —  the  time  for  words 

Has  passed,  and  deeds  alone  suffice ; 
In  the  loud  clang  of  meeting  swords 

The  softer  music  dies  ! 
Act —  act,  in  God's  name,  while  ye  may! 

Smite  from  the  Church  her  leprous  limb  ! 
Throw  open  to  the  light  of  day 
The  bondman's  cell,  and  break  away 

The  chains  the  State  has  bound  on  him  I 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


307 


«<  One  last  great  battle  for  the  Right,  — 
One  short,  sharp  struggle  to  be  free !  — 

To  do  is  to  succeed —  our  fight 

Is  -waged  in  Heaven's  approving  sight  — 
The  smile  of  God  is  Victory  !  " 

It  is  certain  that  when  John  Brown  was  at  the  New  Eng- 
land Anti-Slavery  Convention  in  Boston  last  May,  he  was 
heard  to  say,  at  its  conclusion,  "  These  men  are  all  talk : 
what  is  needed  is  action  —  action  ! "  He  did  unconscious 
injustice  to  the  men  alluded  to,  but  it  shows  what  was  then 
uppermost  in  his  mind. 

In  the  following  lines  by  "Whittier,  the  martial  references 
are  very  ditferent  from  those  in  his  effusion  in  the  "  Independ- 
ent": 

"  Our  fellow-countrymen  in  dhains! 

Slaves  —  in  a  land  of  light  and  law ! 
Slaves  —  crouching  on  the  very  plains 

Where  rolled  t'le  storm  of  FrcedoirCs  war  ! 
A  groan  from  Eutau's  haunted  M'ood  — 

A  wail  where  Camden's  martjTs  fell  — 
By  every  shrine  of  patriot  blood. 

From  Moultrie's  wall  and  Jasper's  well! 
By  storied  hill  and  hallowed  grot, 

By  mossy  wood  and  marshy  glen. 
Whence  rang  of  old  the  rifle-shot 

And  hurrying  shout  of  Marion's  me7i !  " 
*  *  *  tt 

"No — by  each  spot  of  haunted  ground, 

Where  Freedom  weeps  her  children's  fall  — 
By  Plymouth's  Rock,  and  Bunker's  mound  — 

By  Gristcohrs  stained  and  shattered  icall  — 
By  Warre7i's  ghost —  by  Langdon's  shade  — 
By  all  the  memories  of  our  dead  ! 
«  «  «  « 

"By  their  enlarging  souls,  which  burst 

The  bands  and  fetters  round  them  set ! 
By  the  free  Pilgrim  spirit  nursed 

Within  our  inmost  bosoms  yet  — 
By  all  above  —  around  —  below  — 
Be  ours  th'  indignant  answer  —  NO !  " 


3o8 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


So,  too,  in  the  following  verse,  tliere  is  the  same  apprecia- 
tion of  heroism,  without  any  damaging  imputation:  — 

"  When  Freedom,  on  her  natal  day, 
Within  her  war-rocked  cradle  lay. 
An  iron  race  around  her  stood. 
Baptized  her  infant  brmo  in  blood. 
And,  through  the  storm  which  round  her  swept, 
Their  constant  ward  and  watching  kept." 

Again: 

God  bless  New  Hampshire !  —  from  her  granite  peaks, 
Once  tnore  the  voice  of  Stark  and  Lanc/don  speaks ! " 

But  John  Brown  was  nobler  in  his  aim,  anr'.  less  bloody  in : 
his  spirit,  than  either  Stark  or  Langdon. 
Again,  says  the  poet :  — 

"  The  voice  of  free,  broad  Middlesex  —  of  thousand  as  of  one  — 
The  shaft  of  Bunker  calling  to  that  of  Lexington .'" 

Is  Harper's  Ferry  a  whit  behind  Bunker  Hill  or  Lexington 
in  all  that  constitutes  true  devotion  of  soul,  or  a  quenchless 
love  of  liberty? 

Again,  alluding  to  the  invasive  march  of  the  Slave  Power 
through  the  North : 

•«  It  is  coming,  it  is  nigh .' 
Stand  your  homes  and  altars  by ; 
On  your  own  free  thresholds  die  ! 

"  Perish  party  —  perish  clan ; 
Strike  together  while  ye  can, 
Like  the  arm  of  one  strong  man  !  " 

Finally,  Yorktown  is  celebrated  in  the  following  strain : 

"  From  Yorktown's  rtiins,  ranked  and  still, 
Two  lines  stretch  far  o'er  vale  and  hill : 
"\\Tio  curbs  his  steed  at  head  of  one  ? 
Hark  i  the  low  murmur :  Washington  ! 
Who  bends  his  keen,  approving  glance, 
Where  down  the  gorgeous  line  of  France 


Whittier  and  Grarrifon. 


Shine  nightly  star  and  plume  of  snow  ? 
Thou  too  art  victor,  Bochambeau ! 
»         «         *  « 

'« 0  !  veil  your  faces,  young  and  brave  ! 

Sleep,  Scammel,  in  thy  soldier  grave  ! 

Sons  of  the  North-land,  ye  who  set 

Stout  hearts  against  the  bayonet. 

And  pressed  with  steady  footfall  near 

The  moated  battery's  blazing  tier. 

Turn  your  scarred  faces  from  the  sight — 

Let  shame  do  homage  to  the  right ! " 

Neither  Washington,  nor  Rochambeau,  nor  Scammel  pre- 
sented such  exalted  traits  of  character  as  John  Brown :  why, 
then,  should  he  be  the  subject  of  special  moral  criticism  and 
rebuke  by  the  poet  ?  Why  was  his  effort  "  a  midnight  raid 
with  bloody  hand,"  while  theirs  was  made  brilliant  and  im- 
posing by  "  knightly  star  and  plume  of  snow,"  and  by  success- 
fully meeting  bayonet  with  bayonet  ? 

If  there  is  danger,  on  the  one  hand,  lest  there  may  be  a 
repudiation  of  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance,  through  the  sym- 
pathy and  admiration  felt  for  John  Brown,  there  is  more  dan- 
ger, on  the  other  hand,  that  the  brutal  outcry  raised  against  him 
as  an  outlaw,  traitor,  and  murderer  by  those  who  ^ire  either  too 
cowardly  to  avow  their  real  convictions,  or  too  pro-slavery  to 
feel  one  throb  of  pity  for  those  in  bondage,  will  lead  to  unmer- 
ited censure  of  his  course.  Diificult  as  it  may  be  to  hold  an 
equal  balance  in  such  a  case,  it  is  still  the  duty  of  every  one 
to  do  so. 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


A  CORRECTION.* 

Boston,  Jan.  13,  1860. 

Wsr.  Llotd  Gakrison". 

Dear  Sii- :  In  your  criticism  of  Mr.  "NVhittier's  poem  on  John  Brown, 
you  have  made  one  error,  which,  I  notice,  is  shared  by  many  of  the  old 
warrior's  friends.    You  say,  — 

"  He  perilled  all  that  was  dear  to  lilm,  not  to  achieve  liberty  fur  blmiieir,  or  those 
of  his  own  complexion,  hat  to  break  the  fetters  of  a  rare  '  not  colored  like  tus  own,' 
most  wickedly  abhorred,  universally  proscribed,  aud  Rubjected  to  a  bondage  full  of 
unutterable  woe  and  horror.  But,  even  in  their  buhulf,  ho  sought  no  revenge,  but 
only  (if  possible)  a  peaceful  exodus  from  Virginia." 

John  Brown  did  nol  intend  to  makp  any  exodus  from  "Virginia,  peace- 
fill  or  otherwise,  but  to  liberate  the  slaves  in  their  native  State,  and  to 
support  them  there.  The  idea  that  he  intended  to  make  an  extidus, 
comes  from  his  reference  to  his  exploit  in  Missouri,  which  was  given 
as  an  explanation  of  the  fact  that  slaves  might  be  liberated  without 
bloodshed ;  not  as  an  indication  of  the  mode  by  which  he  intended  to 
operate  in  Virginia. 

Have  you  not  seen  his  letter  of  explanation  to  Mr.  Hunter  ?  By 
reading  it,  you  will  see  that  there  was  no  real  contradiction  in  his 
statements. 

Now  comes  the  question.  How  did  he  intend  to  support  himself  in 
Virginia  without  insurrection  ? 

Mr.  Emerson  never  .^aid  a  truer  word  than  when  he  described  John 
Brown  as  a  pure  Idealist.  It  would  have  been  as  easy  to  drive  a 
shadow  into  the  centre  of  a  block  of  granite  as  to  force  a  pio-slavcry 
falsehood  into  his  brain  or  heart.  Truly  regarded,  is  it  not  a  conces- 
sion to  the  Southern  creed,  to  call  a  rising  of  the  slaves  an  insurrec- 
tion ?  The  whites  of  the  South  are  now  in  insurrection.  Southern 
society  for  two  centuries  has  been  an  insurrection.  John  Brown, 
therefore,  went  down  to  Virginia  not  to  incite,  but  to  extinguish, 
insurrection.  He  went  down  to  Virginia  as  an  Abolitionist  and  Com- 
pcjisationist  —  to  free  the  slaves,  and  pay  them  for  their  past  unre- 
quited services.  If  any  man  had  presumed  to  oppose  this  righteous 
action,  John  Brown  would  have  summarily  resisted  him  to  the  death. 
That  was  the  reason  Avhy  he  bought  pikes,  and  Sharpc's  rifles,  and 
revolvers.  He  did  not  design  to  go  northward,  but  toward  South 
Carolina  and  Alabama.  He  intended  to  put  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence through  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 


*  From  the  Liberator,  Jan.  13, 1800. 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


311 


There  was  no  intentional  deception  in  John  Brown's  language  to 
the  Court  or  elsewhere.  He  neither  intended,  it  is  true,  to  incite  or 
excite  insurrection,  even  in  the  Virginia  sense  of  the  word ;  hut  as  he 
would  have  been  resisted  by  the  tj^ants  whose  wicked  work  he  was 
undoing,  he  would  unquestionably  have  stirred  up  a  terrible  revolu- 
tion. Yet,  to  say  that  he  woidd  have  -been  the  cause  of  it,  is  to  cover 
the  crime  of  Slavery  with  the  mantle  of  legitimacy. 

Yours  truly,  James  Redpath. 


REPLY  OP  WHITTIER. 

Amesbury,  15th,  1st  mo.,  1860. 
My  Dear  Friend  Garrison  :  In  thy  notice  of  my  article  on 
«  Brown  of  Osawatomie,"  published  recently  in  the  New  York 
Independent,  thou  hast,  unintentionally,  I  am  sure,  done  me 
injustice.  Apart  from  what  thee  so  well  knew  of  my  lifelong 
professions  and  principles,  I  need  only  call  thy  attention  to 
the  fact,  that  in  almost  every  instance,  the  articles  from  which 
thou  hast  quoted  passages  containing  warlike  allusions  and 
figures,  contain  distinct  and  emphatic  declarations  of  the  en- 
tirely peaceful  character  of  the  Anti-slavery  enterprise ;  and 
equally  emphatic  denunciations  of  war  and  violence  in  its 
behalf.  In  thy  first  quotation,  the  qualifying  lines  which,  in 
the  original,  connect  the  two  parts  of  the  extract,  are  omitted : 

"  To  Freedom's  perilled  altar  bear 

The  freeman's  and  the  Christian's  wliok  — 
Tongue,  pen,  and  vote,  and  prayer  1 " 

In  the  article  from  which  thy  second  quotation  is  made,  the 
following  significant  stanza  is  the  key-note  of  the  whole  : 

•«  Up  now  for  freedom  !  —  not  in  strife 

Like  that  your  sterner  fathers  sate, 
T/ie  airfal  waste  of  human  life. 

Hie  glory  and  the  guilt  of  %car. 
But  break  the  chain,  the  yoke  remove, 

A)id  smite  to  earth  Oppression's  rod 
With  those  mild  arms  of  Trtttk  and  Ijovc, 

Made  mighty  through  the  living  God" 


312 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


In  the  poem  entitled  "Moral  Warfare,"  (the  very  title 
shows  its  character,)  the  lines  quoted  by  thee  are  contrasted 
with  such  as  these : 

«•  A  moral  warfare  with  the  crime 
And  folly  of  an  evil  time." 

"  And  strong  in  Him  whose  cause  is  ours, 
In  conflict  with  imholy  powers, 
We  grasp  the  weapons  He  has  given, 
The  Light,  and  Truth,  and  Love  of  Heaven." 

The  poem  "  Yorktown "  is  simply  a  dramatic  representa- 
tion of  the  capture  of  Yorktown,  and  the  reenslavement  of 
the  fugitive  slaves  in  the  abused  name  of  Liberty.  No 
eulogy  of  war  was  intended  or  given, — none  can  be  so 
understood. 

But,  enough  of  this  merely  personal  explanation.  No  one 
who  knows  me,  or  who  has  read  my  writings,  can  be  doubtful 
for  a  moment  as  to  my  position  —  utter  abhorrence  of  war,  and 
of  slavery  as  in  itself  a  state  of  war,  where  the  violence  is  all 
on  one  side. 

The  pledge  which  we  gave  to  the  world  at  Fhiladelphia, 
twenty-six  years  ago,  when  we  signed  the  Declaration  of  Sen- 
timents, fresh  from  thy  pen,  that  we  would  reject,  ourselves, 
and  entreat  the  oppressed  to  reject  the  use  of  all  carnal  weap- 
ons for  deliverance  from  bondage  ;  that  we  admitted  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  States  over  the  subject  of  Slavery  within  their 
limits  ;  and  that  we  were  under  high  moral  obligations  to  use, 
for  the  promotion  of  our  cause,  moral  and  political  action  as 
prescribed"  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, — we  have 
since  reiterated  in  a  thousand  forms,  and  on  as  many  occasions. 
I  have  seen  no  reason  to  doubt  the  wisdom  of  that  pledge. 
Slavery  was  just  what  it  is  now,  neither  better  nor  worse, 
when  we  made  it.  If  it  is  right  and  proper  now  to  use  forci- 
ble means  in  behalf  of  the  slave,  it  was  right  and  proper  then. 
If  it  be  said  that  Old  Testament  Christians  are  not  bonii<l  by 
our  pledge.-!,  and  that  we  are  at  liberty  to  applaud  ihem  in 


Whittier  and  Grarrifon.  31(5 

appeals  to  the  sword,  I  can  only  sav  that  I  dare  not  encourage 
others  who  have  not  my  scruples  to  do  what  I  regard  as  mor- 
ally wrong.  On  the  contrary,  I  would  use,  even  to  the  slaves, 
the  language  of  thy  own  lines : 

«'  Not  by  the  sword  shall  your  deliverance  be, 
Not  by  the  shedding  of  your  masters'  blocd, 
Not  by  rebellion,  nor  foul  treachery 
Upspringing  suddenly  like  swelling  flood ; 
Revenge  and  rapine  ne'er  did  bring  forth  good. 
God's  time  is  best,  nor  vail  it  long  delay ;  — 
Even  now  your  barren  cause  begins  to  bud, 
And  glorious  shall  the  fruit  be.   Watch  and  pray! 
For,  lo !  the  kindling  dawn  that  ushers  in  the  day." 

I  am  painfully  sensible  of  many  errors  of  feeling  and  judg- 
ment, but  my  conscience  bears  me  witness  that  I  have,  at  least, 
honestly  striven  to  be  faithful  alike  to  Freedom  and  Peace. 
That  this  is  thy  own  earnest  desire,  I  have  as  little  doubt. 

Very  truly,  thy  friend,  J.  G.  Whittiee. 

REJOINDER  OP  GARRISON. 

Our  friend,  John  G.  Whittier,  wholly  misapprehends  the 
point  of  our  criticism,  respecting  his  poetical  effusion  upon 
"Brown  of  Osawatoraie,"  as  published  in  the  New  York 
Independent.  We  did  not  mean  to  imply  that  he  had  de- 
parted from  his  peace  principles,  in  the  various  extracts  we 
made  from  his  soul-stirring  productions  ;  but  only  that,  in  his 
references  to  Bunker  Hill,  and  Lexington,  and  Yorktown, 
,  &c.,  he  recognized  whatever  was  noble  in  the  spirit  and 
ocduct  of  ouf*  revolutionary  fathers,  without  passing  any  con- 
demnation upon  them  in  juxtaposition  with  his  commendations, 
as  in  the  case  of  John  Brown.  We  find  no  such  phrases  as 
"the  rash  and  bloody  hand,"  "the  guilty  means,"  "  the  folly 
that  seeks  through  evil  good,"  "  the  raid  of  midnight  terror," 
"  the  outlaw's  pride  of  daring,"  &c.,  but  thriUiog  appeals  in 
the  loftiest  strains  of  heroic  apprepiatigijj  ^ 

27 


Whittier  and  Garrifon; 


"  By  every  shrine  of  patriot  blood, 

Prom  Moultrie's  wall  and  Jasper's  well ; 
By  storied  hill  and  hallowed  grot, 

By  mossy  wood  and  marshy  glen, 
Whence  rang  of  old  the  rifle-shot 

A'^r'  hurrying  shout  of  Marion's  men ; 
Aiid  by  each  spot  of  haunted  grotmd, 

T^'nere  Freedom  weeps  ha  children's  fall,  — 
iiy  Plymouth's  KocK,  and  Bunker's  mound, 

By  Griswold's  stained  and  shattered  wall, 
By  Warrcu  b  i^host,  by  Langdon's  shade,  — 

By  all  the  mtmories  of  our  dead ! " 

What  we  desired  to  suggest  to  our  friend  "Whittier,  —  to 
whom  the  cause  of  impartial  liberty  is  so  immensely  indebted 
for  his  efforts  in  its  behalf,  —  was,  that  in  every  point  of  view, 
Harper's  Ferry  deserves  as  honorable  a  reference  in  song  as 
"  Moultrie's  wall,"  and  Jasper's  well,"  or  as  "  Eutau's  haunted 
wood,"  and  "  Bunker's  mound,"  — 

"  Where  rolled  the  storm  of  Freedom's  war  ! " 

and  that  John  Brown,  in  perilling,  ay,  and  in  losing  his  life 
to  deliver  the  slaves  of  Virginia  from  their  thraldom,  ought 
(to  say  the  least)  to  take  rank  with  "Warren's  ghost  and 
Langdon's  shade."    That's  all ! 

William  Lloto  Gakrisok. 

the  true  poem. 

A  correspondent  of  the  Liberator  suggests  that  "  the  follow- 
ing thrilling  lines  of  Whittier,  written  many  years  ago,  (as  a 
tribute  to  a  lamented  friend  of  the  Anti-slavery  cause,  Presi- 
dent C.  B.  Storrs,)  seem  more  appropriate  to  Freedom's  mar- 
tyr, John  Brown,  than  the  lines  upon  him  in  the  New  York 
independent." 

Thou  hast  fallen  in  thi^ie  jirmor. 

Thou  martyr  of  the  Lord } 
With  thy  last  breath  crying,  "  Onward  | " 

And  thy  hand  upon  the  swor^. 


Whittier  and  Garrifon. 


The  haughty  heart  derideth, 
And  the  sinful  lip  reviles, 

But  the  blessing  of  the  perishing 
Around  thy  pillow  smiles. 

Oppression's  hand  may  scatter 

Its  nettles  on  thy  tomb, 
And  even  Christian  bosoms 

Deny  thy  memory  room  ; 
For  Ij-ing  lips  shall  torture 

Thy  mercy  into  crime, 
And  the  slanderer  shall  flourish 

As  the  bay-tree  for  a  time. 

But  where  the  south  wind  lingers 

On  Carolina's  pines, 
Or  falls  the  careless  sunbeam 

Down  Georgia's  golden  mines  ; 
"Where  now  beneath  his  burden 

The  toiling  slave  is  driven, 
"Where  now  a  tyrant's  mockery 

Is  offered  unto  Heaven  ;  — 

"Wliere  Mammon  hath  its  altars 

"Wet  o'er  with'  human  blood, 
And  pride  and  lust  debases 

The  workmanship  of  God ;  — 
There  shall  thy  praise  be  spoken, 

Redeemed  from  falsehood's  ban, 
"When  the  fetters  shall  be  broken. 

And  the  Slave  shall  be  a  Man  ! 

In  the  evil  days  before  us. 

And  the  trials  yet  to  come ; 
In  the  shadow  of  the  prison. 

Or  the  cruel  martyrdom  ; 
"We  will  think  of  thee,  0  brother! 

And  thy  sainted  name  shall  be 
In  the  blessing  of  the  captive. 

And  the  anthem  of  the  free. 


Old  Brown. 


I, 

SnccESS  goes  royal-crowned  through  time, 
Oowa  all  the  loud  applauding  days, 
Purpled  in  Uistcry's  silkenest  phrase. 

And  brave  with  many  a  poet's  rhyme. 

While  Unsuccess,  hts  peer  and  mate, 
Sprung  from  the  same  heroic  race, 
Vegotteu  of  the  same  embrace. 

Dies  at  his  brother's  palace  gate. 

The  insolent  laugh,  the  blighting  sneer, 
The  pointing  hand  of  vulgar  scorn, 
The  thorny  path,  and  wreath  of  thorn. 

The  many-headed's  stupid  jeer, 

Show  where  he  fell.  And  by-and-by, 
Comes  History,  in  the  winning  light, 
Her  pen-nib  worn  with  Ilea,  to  write 

The  failure  into  iufamy. 

Ah,  God !  but  here  and  there,  there  stands 
Along  the  years,  a  man  to  see 
Beneath  the  victor's  bravery 

The  spots  upon  the  lily  hands : 

To  read  the  secret  will  of  good, 
(Dead  hope,  and  trodden  into  earth,) 


That  beat  the  breast  of  strife  fir  birth. 
And  died  birth-choked,  in  parent  blood. 

II. 

Old  Lion !  tangled  in  the  net. 
Baffled  and  spent,  and  wounded  sore. 
Bound,  thou  who  ne'er  knew  bonds  before : 

A  captive,  but  a  lion  yet. 

Death  kills  not.  In  a  later  time. 

(O,  slow,  bnt  all-accomplishing !) 

Thy  shouted  name  abroad  shall  ring, 
Wherever  right  makes  war  sublime : 

When  in  the  perfect  scheme  oS  God, 
It  shall  not  be  a  crime  for  deeds 
To  quicken  liberating  creeds, 

And  men  shall  rise  where  slaves  have  trod ; 

Then  he,  the  fearless  future  Man, 
Shall  wash  the  blot  and  stain  away, 
Wo  fix  upon  thy  name  to-day  — 

Thou  hero  of  the  noblest  plan. 

0,  patience !  Felon  of  the  ho«r ! 
Over  thy  ghastly  gallows-tree 
Shall  clin>b  the  vine  of  Liberty, 

With  ripened  fruit  and  fragrant  flower. 


Wm.  D.  II0WEII8. 


11. 


Sermon  by  James  Freeman  Clarke.* 

THERE  is  but  one  subject  upon  which  we  can  think  this 
morning.  Last  "Wednesday,  a  man  was  sentenced  to 
death  on  a  charge  of  exciting  Slaves  to  Insurrection,  of 
Treason  against  the  State  of  "V  irginia,  and  of  Murder.  Prob- 
ably many  technical  objections  might  fairly  be  raised  against 
the  verdict,  and  against  the  conduct  of  the  Court.  But  his 
conviction  was  a  foregone  conclusion  —  it  could  not  be  avoid- 
ed. Men  who  do  such  things  as  he  did,  set  their  life  on  a 
cast,  and  must  be  ready  to  stand  the  hazard  of  the  die.  He 
was  thus  ready  —  he  is  ready.  From  first  to  last  he  has 
shown  no  wavering,  no  desire  to  save  his  life.  His  whole 
course  has  been  so  convincingly  conscientious,  manly,  truth- 
ful, and  heroic,  that  his  enemies  have  been  compelled  to 
honor  him.  For  the  first  time  within  our  memory,  the  whole 
North  and  South  seem  to  be  united  in  one  opinion  and  one 
sentiment  —  the  opinion  that  this  attempt  of  Brown  was  un- 
wise and  unwarranted  —  the  sentiment  of  respect  for  the 
man  himself,  as  a  Hero. 

You  have  heard  little  from  this  pulpit  upon  the  subject  of 
Slavery  for  several  years.    In  that  time  I  have  scarcely  al- 

•  Entitled,  "  Causes  and  Consequences  of  the  Affair  at  Harper's  Ferry ; "  preached 
In  the  Indiana  Place  Chapel,  Boston,  on  Sunday  morning,  Nov.  6, 1859,  from  Mark 
Vi.26:  — 

"  And  Herod  feared  John,  knowing  that  he  was  a  just  man." 

27*  (317) 


31 8  James  Freeman  Clarke. 


luded  to  it;  never  spoken  of  it  at  length.  The  reason  of  my 
abstinence  was  simply  this,  that  I  saw  no  necessity  for  speak- 
ing. The  subject  is  being  so  thoroughly  discussed  in  Con- 
gress, in  the  Legislatures,  in  the  newspapers,  in  public 
meetings,  and  in  private  discussion,  that  it  does  not  now  seem 
so  necessary  to  speak  of  it  in  the  pulpit.  But  such  an  event 
as  this  calls  up  too  many  thoughts  to  allow  me  to  be  silent ; 
and  I  therefore  choose  for  my  subject,  "  The  Causes  and 
Consequences  of  the  late  Affair  at  Harper's  Fek- 
RT."  And  I  take  for  my  text  the  twentieth  verse  of  the 
sixth  chapter  of  Mark :  "  And  Herod  feared  John,  knowing 
that  he  was  a  just  man." 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  ascribe  this  event  to  the 
teachings  of  the  Anti-Slavery  party  in  this  country.  Well, 
they  are  the  cause  of  it,  in  one  sense,  just  as  Samuel  Adams 
and  Josiah  Quincy,  James  Otis  and  Patrick  Henry,  were  the 
cause  of  the  bloodshed  at  Lexington  and  Bunker's  Hill ;  and 
just  as  the  preaching  of  Christianity  was  the  cause  of  the 
religious  wars  which  followed.  Whoever  opposes  tyranny 
and  wrong  in  any  shape,  with  words,  will  often  cause  a  con- 
flict of  deeds  to  follow.  Jesus  said,  "  1  came  not  to  send 
peace,  but  a  sword"  He  knew  that  his  teachings  would  not 
be  peaceably  accepted  —  would  be  resisted  —  and  that  blood- 
shed would  follow.  But  where  rests  the  responsibility  ?  Not 
on  Jesus,  though  his  Gospel  has  been  the  occasion  of  war ; 
not  on  James  Otis  and  Patrick  Henry,  though  their  words 
were  the  occasion  of  war ;  not  on  those  who  oppose  evil, 
but  on  those  who  maintain  and  defend  it.  Therefore,  not  on 
Anti-Slavery  teaching,  but  on  Pro-Slavery  teaching,  North 
and  South,  on  the  men  and  newspapers  in  Washington  and 
Boston,  who  unite  with  the  oppressors  to  put  down  Free- 
dom and  quench  its  light  in  the  blood  of  its  advocates; 
on  these  and  such  as  these  rests  the  responsibility  of  this 
tragedy. 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


I.  The  first  cause  of  this  sad  affair  is  Slavery  itself. 

There  is  an  "  irrepressible  conflict "  between  Freedom  and 
Slavery.  The  opposition  is  radical  and  entire ;  there  can  be 
lio  peace  nor  permanent  truce  between  them,  till  one  has 
conquered  the  other.  Either  Slavery  is  right  or  it  is  MTong. 
The  radical  question  is  this:  Can  one  man  belong  to 
another,  as  his  property,  or  not  ?  To  this  question  there  cau 
be  but  two  answers  —  Tes,  or  No.  There  is  no  intermediate 
answer. 

To  this  question  the  whole  country  formerly  said  No. 
North  and  South,  every  one  used  to  say  that  Slavery  was 
wrong.  The  great  minds  at  the  South  —  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson, Patrick  Henry,  Madison,  Monroe,  Christopher  Gads- 
den of  South  Carolina  —  all  believed  that  Slavery  was  wrong 
in  principle  and  bad  in  its  influence,  and  must  gradually  come 
to  an  end.  The  evidence  of  this  is  ample.  One  fact  I  will 
mention.  The  territory  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  was  con- 
secrated to  Freedom,  and  secured  against  Slavery  by  a  pro- 
viso, passed  by  the  votes  of  Southern  as  well  as  Northern 
statesmen.  "When,  afterwards,  the  people  of  the  Territory 
of  Indiana  petitioned  Congress  to  be  allowed  to  hold  Slaves 
for  a  time,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  in  procuring  free  la- 
bor, their  petition  was  reported  adversely  upon,  by  a  commit- 
tee, the  chairman  of  which  was  Randolph  of  Virginia,  who 
said,  "They  will  thank  us  hereafter  for  rejecting  their 
petition." 

At  that  time  all  admitted  that  Slavery,  in  its  principle  and 
in  the  abstract,  Avas  wrong;  and  all  said,  "We  expect,  by 
degrees,  and  gradually,  to  put  an  end  to  it." 

There  was  no  war  then  between  Slavery  and  Freedom ;  no 
"  irrepressible  conflict ; "  for  all  were  on  the  side  of  Freedom. 

But  time  passed  by  and  Slavery  did  not  come  to  an  end. 
The  immense  expansion  in  the  consumption  of  cotton,  and 
its  increasing  price  —  the  demand  always  overlapping  the 
supply  —  made  its  culture  the  most  profitable  work  done  in 


320  James  Freeman  Clarke. 


America;  and  this  work  was  most  easily  and  cheaply  done 
by  Slaves.  At  the  end  of  a  generation  from  the  death  of 
"Washington,  Slavery  had  become  vastly  more  profitable  in 
the  Southern  States  than  it  was  in  his  days.  Now,  the 
South  did  not  wish  Slavery  to  come  to  an  end.  It  wished  it 
to  continue.  I  do  not  say  that  the  Slaveholders  were  worse 
in  this  than  other  people.  Their  misfortune  was  to  be  ex- 
posed to  a  tremendous  temptation,  and  they  yielded  to  it. 
The  people  of  New  England  might  have  yielded  too,  if  they 
had  been  exposed  to  that  temptation. 

This  was  the  first  great  change ;  this  the* essential  change; 
this  change  of  desire  and  wish  —  all  the  rest  has  followed 
that.  For,  though  single  men  are  illogical  and  inconsistent, 
mankind  is  logical  and  consistent.  In  the  long  run,  people 
will  either  act  as  they  believe,  or  else  believe  as  they  act. 
The  Slaveholders  were  believing  one  way,  but  determined  to 
act  another.  The  situation  was  painful,  and  they  broke  away 
from  it.  Never  was  such  a  revolution  in  opinion  as  that 
which  has  taken  place  at  the  South  within  the  last  twenty 
yeare,  on  the  subject  of  Slavery.  Twenty  years  ago,  nine 
Slaveholders  out  of  ten  would  tell  you  they  thought  Slavery 
wrong ;  to-day,  nine  out  of  ten  will  tell  you  they  think  it 
right.  So  logical  is  man.  As  they  made  up  their  wills  to 
extend,  and  not  abolish  Slavery,  they  presently  made  up  their 
minds  to  believe  it  right,  and  not  wrong — a  Christian  Insti- 
tution ;  a  missionary  enterprise ;  based  on  the  Bible,  and  in 
accordance  with  the  highest  principle  of  duty. 

I  kno\^  very  well  that  there  was  a  transition  period.  While 
this  great  change  of  public  opinion  was  going  on,  it  was  cov- 
ered up  and  concealed  with  fine  phrases.  This  was  the  period 
of  what  Bentham  calls  " Fallaciovs  Designatims"  Bentham 
says  "  the  object  and  effect  of  a  Fallacious  Designation  is  to 
avoid  any  unpleasant  idea  that  liappens  to  be  associated  with 
a  person  or  class,  and  to  present  to  the  mind  instead  an  ab- 
straction or  creation  of  fancy."    Thus,  says  he, 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


Instead  of  *  Kings  or  the  King,'  you  say  *  The  Crown  or  Throne.' 

«     «  <  Churchmen,'  "    "  *  The  Church  or  Altar.' 

«     "  *  Lawyers,'  "    "  '  The  Law." 

«     «  '  A  Judge,'  "    «  *  The  Court.' 

«     «  « Eich  Men,'  «    "  <  Property.' 

«    «  '  Killing  a  Man,'      «   «  *  Capital  Punishment.' 
So  in  this  country  we  said, 
Instead  of  *  Slavery,'  '  Southern  Institutions.' 

«    «  « Slaveholders,'  « The  South.' 

A  good  deal  was  accomplished  in  this  way  by  the  Slave- 
holders. Thus,  in  1850,  when  it  was  proposed  to  exclude 
Slavery,  by  law,  from  the  new  Territories,  it  was  said,  in 
reply,  "  The  South  has  a  right  to  take  its  property  into  the 
territory  purchased  by  its  own  treasure  and  blood."  Trans- 
lated into  plain  Saxon  English;  tiiis  meant,  "  Three  hundred 
thousand  Slaveholders,  in  the  Slave  States,  rich  enough  to 
own,  on  an  average,  ten  negroes  each,  insist,  against  the  in- 
terest of  thirteen  million  in  the  Free  States,  of  six  million  of 
Non-Slaveholders  in  the  Slave  States,  and  of  three  million 
of  Slaves,  to  carry  Slaves  into  territories  where  there  are 
none  now,  and  to  have  the  laws  changed  to  let  them  do  it." 
Mr.  Calhoun  first  established  this  "Fallacious  Designation" 
of  *  The  South '  instead  of  '  The  Slaveholders.'  And,  in  his 
last  great  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate,  he  csirried  it  so 
far  as  to  complain  that  in  the  annexation  of  new  territory 
to  the  Union,  "  the  North  had  obtained  more  than  the  South," 
—  not  meaning  that  more  territory  situated  at  the  North  had 
been  annexed,  but  that  more  had  been  secured  to*  Freedom 
than  to  Slavery. 

In  the  same  way,  in  the  Free  States,  we  always  have  had 
a  party  who  wish  to  cover  up  and  conceal  the  radical  oppo- 
sition of  Slavery  to  Freedom,  and  Freedom  to  Slavery ;  to 
daub  the  wall  with  untempered  mortar  —  to  cry  peace  when 
there  is  no  peace.  They  also  make  great  use  of  these  "  Fal- 
lacious Designations."   They  say  '  Our  Southern  Brethren ;' 


^22  James  Freeman  Clarke. 


meaning,  not  the  four  million  Slaves,  nor  the  six  million  Non- 
Slaveholders  at  the  South,  but  the  three  hundred  thousand 
Slaveholders  only. 

But  logic  is  too  strong  for  phr.nses.  Those  who  'vvish  to 
postpone  the  deluge  till  their  time  is  past,  and  to  leave  it  as  a 
legacy  to  their  children  and  grandchildren,  find  themselves 
more  and  more  helpless  in  the  increasing  earnestness  of  the 
hour.  The  two  parties,  consisting  of  those  who  believe 
Slavery  right  and  those  who  believe  it  wrong,  are  like 
the  upper  and  the  nether  millstone ;  small,  compared  with 
the  great  bags  and  heaps  of  com  lying  near  them,  but 
destined  to  go  round  and  round  till  they  have  ground  it  all 
to  powder. 

Those  who  believe  Slavery  right,  labor  to  fortify,  extend, 
and  strengthen  it.  They  have  passed  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law,  defeated  the  "WilTr.jt  Proviso,  repealed  the  Missouri 
Compromise,  obtained  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  have 
determined  next  to  re-open  the  African  Slave  Trade,  and 
annex  Cuba.  No  phraseology  about  "  Our  Southern  Breth- 
ren," or  "  Safety  of  the  Union,"  can  conceal  these  facts. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  party  which  hold  Slavery  to 
be  wrong.  They  hold  it  to  be  a  wild  and  guilty  fantasy  that 
man  can  claim  property  in  man.  With  John  Wesley,  they 
consider  Slavery  to  be  the  sum  of  all  villany.  Holding  this, 
they  believe  that  the  Slave  has  a  right  to  assert  his  freedom 
whenever  he  can  do  so;  he  has  a  right  to  take  possession  of 
himself  with  the  strong  hand  if  he  can.  That  which  he  has 
a  right  to"do  we  may  lawfully  help  him  do,  if  we  violate  no 
other  right  in  doing  it ;  and  we  cannot  lawfully  oppose  his 
doing  it  in  any  case.  For  the  Slave  either  belongs  to  his 
master  or  to  himself.  If  he  belongs  to  his  master,  he  is  a 
thief  if  he  tries  to  escape.  If  he  belongs  to  himself,  his 
master  is  a  thief  if  he  tries  to  keep  him,  and  we  are  kid- 
napping if  we  assist  his  master  in  taking  him.  When  An- 
thony Bums  was  taken  down  State  Street,  and  the  people  on 


James  Freeman  Clarke.  323 


each  side  hoarsely  roared  "Kidnappers!  kidnappers!"  at  the 
soldiers  who  guarded  him  —  their  faces  showed  that  they  felt 
the  truth  of  the  charge.  "We  may  wear  on  our  hat  the  cock- 
ade of  the  United  States  Marshal,  or  we  may  be  cJvUed  o\it  as 
a  military  company,  covered  with  feathers  and  gold  lace,  but 
that  does  not  vacate  the  principle.  We  are  kidnappers  and 
man-stealers  still. 

Here  is  the  irrepressible  conflict  —  which  may  be  concealed 
under  heaps  of  words,  smothered  by  fine  phrases,  hidden  by 
the  exigencies  of  trade,  of  party  politics,  of  sectarian  ecclesi- 
asticism  —  but  which,  like  fire  which  you  try  to  put  out  with 
mountainous  heaps  of  straw,  burns  on  and  on  till  it  breaks 
forth  at  last  in  a  wide,  destroying  flame. 

Here  is  the  fundamental  and  primary  cause  of  the  Harper's 
Ferry  affair — the  antagonism  between  Slavery  and  Free- 
dom. Any  one  who  believes  that  Slavery  is  right  must 
logically  regard  John  Brown  as  a  robber  and  brigand.  But 
those  who  believe  Slavery  wrong ;  who  justify  the  American 
Revolution ;  who  admire  Washington  for  contending  with 
sword  and  fire  against  the  government  of  Britain  to  free  an 
oppressed  people  ;  who  eulogize  Lafayette  for  coming  to  aid 
us  in  that  struggle ;  must  believe  John  Brown  to  be  a  hero, 
and  the  martyr  to  a  pripciple.  The  only  ground  on  which 
they  can  find  fault  with  him  is  for  attempting  prematurely 
what  he  had  not  power  to  accomplish ;  that  is,  for  an  error  of 
judgment  as  regards  means.  It  is  true  that  no  man  has  a 
right  to  encourage  in  any  w.iy  a  Revolution  unless  there  is 
good  reason  for  believing  that  it  will  succeed.  The  best 
cause  will  not  authorize  life  to  be  needlessly  thrown  away. 
Jf  a  man  thinks  he  sees  enough  good  in  prospect  to  justify 
him  in  throwing  away  his  own  life,  he  may  do  so  on  his  own 
responsibility  —  but  he  ought  not  to  waste  the  blood  of  others. 
But  Brown  did  not  mean  to  act  recklessly  —  his  character 
forbids  that  supposition.  He  was  mistaken  then  —  he  erred 
in  judgment  as  to  what  he  could  effect.    He  did  not  intend 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


an  insurrection,  he  says,  but  onlj  an  escape  of  fugitives.  He 
is  a  man  of  truth,  and  I  believe  him. 

II.  The  second  cause  of  this  affair  is  False  Conservatism 
at  the  North. 

It  is  not  with  the  purpose  of  retaliating  charges  made 
against  Anti-Slavery  men,  but  to  express  a  conviction  I  have 
held  for  years,  that  I  say,  —  if  the  dark  problem  of  Slavery 
flnds  a  bloody  solution,  that  blood  will  cry  from  the  ground 
against  those  M'ho,  for  years,  have  been  steadily  laboring  at 
the  North  to  let  down  the  sentiment  of  Freedom  —  the 
Traitors  at  home,  who  have  given  moral  aid  and  comfort  to 
the  Slave  power.  Had  it  not  been  for  these,  we  should  have 
resisted  successfully  the  Annexation  of  Texas,  or  passed  the 
Wilmot  Proviso,  or  defeated  the  F ugitive  Slave  Law,  or  the 
Repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Tlie  Slave  power,  de- 
feated on  these  points,  would  have  ceased  from  its  aggres- 
sions ;  the  lovers  of  Freedom  at  the  South  would  have  been 
encouraged ;  the  border  States  would  have  been  led  to  lake 
measures  for  emancipation.  Gradually,  peacefully,  and  joy- 
fully the  cause  of  Freedom  would  have  grown  strong,  that  of 
Slavery  weak  —  until,  at  last,  surrounded  by  the  hosts  of 
Free  labor,  by  emigrants  from  the«  North,  by  invading  light 
and  advancing  religion ;  hemmed  in  by  all  this  illumination 
and  warmth,  like  the  scorpion  girt  with  fire,  it  would  have 
turned  its  sting  against  itself :  — 

The  sting  it  nurtured  for  its  foes 
Whose  venom  never  yet  wns  vain, 
Gives  but  one  pang  and  ends  all  pain. 

But  as  if  on  a  steamer,  running  at  high  pressure,  men* 
should  be  frightened  at  the  noise  made  by  escaping  steam, 
and  so  shut  down  the  safety-valve  and  call  the  silence  safety 
—  so  with  us.  These  quietists  think  all  danger  to  arise  from 
noisy  Anti-Slavery  people  at  the  North,  and  try  to  stop  that 
noise.   They  think  the  danger  not  from  Slaveiy,  but  from 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


talking  abouf:  it;  and  so  are  themselves  the  cause  of  the  evil 
they  try  to  shun. 

III.  The  third  cause  of  this  Harper's  Ferry  tragedy  is  to 
be  found  in  the  low  condition  of  the  Religion  of  the  country. 

In  such  a  conflict  as  that  between  Slavery  and  Freedom, 
Christianity,  organized  in  churches,  imbodied  in  Christian 
men  and  women,  should  have  come  forward,  to  speak  the 
Truth  in  Love.  Holding  fast  to  the  Eternal  Law  of  God, 
rising  high  above  all  considerations  of  mere  expediency,  it 
should  have  declared  God's  word  supreme  —  above  all  poli- 
tics, all  legal  enactments,  all  State  necessity.  Man,  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  cannot  be  the  slave  of  his  brother  man. 
Proclaiming  this,  it  should  also  have  uttered  it  in  love ;  with 
sympathy  for  the  Slaveholder  as  Avell  as  the  Slave ;  with 
perception  of  his  difitcult  and  dangerous  position,  of  his 
strong  temptations,  and  with  an  earnest  desire  to  aid  him  by 
common  sacrifices. 

Unfortunately,  little  of  this  has  been  done.  On  the  one 
side  the  supremacy  of  God's  law  has  not  been  maintained, 
but  we  have  been  taught  from  a  thousand  pulpits  that  man's 
lower  law  must  be  obeyed  and  not  the  law  of  conscience ;  on 
the  other  hand,  when  the  truth  has  been  uttered,  it  has  not 
been  always  uttered  in  love  to  the  Slaveholder,  but  often  in 
bitterness,  sarcasm,  ahd  contempt.  In  saying  this  I  do  not 
refer  to  professed  Abolitionists  alone.  I  think  that  we  are 
always  in  danger  of  being  unjust  to  those  whom  we  do  not 
personally  know.  It  is  not  easy,  at  this  distance,  to  be  just 
to  Slaveholders.  But  certainly  there  has  often  been  a  hard, 
cold  tone  of  invective  used  against  the  South;  —  which  is 
unjust,  because  it  does  not  recognize  their  difficulty  and  their 
efforts  ;  unchristian,  because  it  does  not  feel  towards  them  as 
to  brethren. 

The  opposers  of  Slavery  have  sometimes  opposed  it  more 
in  the  spirit  of  Elijah  than  in  that  of  Christ  —  with  fierce 
28 


326  James  Freeman  Clarke. 


rebuke,  with  wild  invective;  and  at  last,  as  in  the  present 
instance,  with  the  sword  and  rifle. 

John  Brown  has  been  taught  Christianity  by  a  cliurch, 
which,  binding  up  in  one  volume  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ments, calls  them  both  the  Christian  Bible,  and  gives  equal 
authority  to  the  one  as  to  the  other.  He  is  an  Old  Testa- 
ment Christian ;  a  Christian  who  believes  in  the  sword  of  the 
Lord  and  of  Gideon.  Bred  a  Calvinist  of  the  strictest  sect 
in  Connecticut,  and  holding  firmly  to  his  faith,  he  shares  all 
the  great  and  noble  qualities  that  faith  has  so  often  produced, 
together  with  its  frequent  alloy.  He  is  such  a  man  as  Cal- 
vinism produced  in  the  Scotch  Covenanters,  in  the  men  of 
Cromwell's  Ironside  Regiment,  who  did  not  do  the  work  of 
the  Lord  negligently  at  Naseby  and  at  Worcester.  To  this 
is  added  a  touch  of  chivalric  devotion  and  inspired  enthu- 
siasm, such  as  nerved  the  arm  of  the  Maid  of  Oi-leans  and  of 
Charlotte  Corday. 

Let  me  give  you  an  authentic  anecdote  of  his  strict  and 
impartial  sense  of  justice.  Some  years  ago,  when  living  in 
Western  Pennsylvania,  or  on  the  Ohio  Reserve,  he  found  a 
man  whom  he  believed  to  be  a  horse  thief.  He  arrested 
him  and  took  him  to  jail.  The  man  was  convicted  and  sent 
to  prison.  But  while  he  was  in  prison,  John  Brown  furnished 
the  man's  family  with  provisions  and  clothing.  The  man  had 
committed  a  crime,  and  Brown's  sense  of  justice  required 
that  he  should  be  punished.  His  wife  and  children  had  not 
committed  any  crime,  and  Brown's  sense  of  justice  would  not 
allow  them  to  be  punished  for  another's  fault.  The  man  who 
told  this  story  is  now  sheriff,  I  think,  in  Crawford  County, 
Pennsylvania,  and  was  at  that  time  a  boy  in  Brown's  family, 
and  was  himself  sent  to  town  to  buy  flour  and  carry  it  to  the 
house  of  the  convict. 

These  are  the  three  causes  of  this  tragedy:  First,  the 
radical  hostility  growing  ever  stronger  between  Slavery  and 


James  Freeman  Clarke.  327 


Freedom.  Secondly,  the  false  Conservatism  at  the  North, 
which,  dividing  our  strength,  has  prevented  Freedom  from 
crushing  the  propagandism  of  Slavery  in  the  bud.  And, 
thirdly,  a  Christianity  which  could  not  speak  the  truth  with 
power,  and  at  the  same  time  with  love.  These  three  causes 
will  produce  the  like  etlects  again,  only  more  terrible,  unless 
some  help  comes  from  God's  providence  and  man's  fidelity. 

Let  us  see  if  such  help  is  likely  to  come.  What  will  be 
the  consequences  of  this  affair  ? 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  there  will  be  no  marked  result 
from  this  event ;  that  the  waves  will  close  over  the  head  of 
this  misguided  but  honored  champion  of  the  forlorn,  and 
that  in  six  months  the  world  will  scarcely  remember  him  or 
his  actions. 

I  cannot  think  so.  To  me  this  event  seems  freighted  with 
consequences.  It  is  like  the  clock,  striking  the  fatal  hour  — 
the  hour  of  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  thi-Tconflict.  There 
is  something  solemn,  something  ominous  in  this  transaction. 
While  we  are  talking,  arguing,  making  speeches,  having 
Anti-Slavery  fairs  and  Anti-Slavery  picnics,  here  is  this 
old  man,  with  his  sons,  taking  his  life  and  their  lives,  and 
going  calmly  forward  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  heart  of  this 
system.  You  may  call  it  madness,  insanity  —  what  you  will 
— but  it  is  the  madness  of  Curtius  leaping  into  the  gulf 
which  yawned  in  the  forum ;  the  insanity  of  the  Roman 
Consul,  who,  dedicating  himself  to  the  infernal  gods,  plunged 
alone  and  in  full  armor  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  as  a 
sacrifice  for  his  motion. 

It  is  the  madness  of  Arnold  of  Winkelried,  gathering  into 
his  bosom  the  deadly  sheaf  of  spears — the  madness  of  the 
three  hundred  that  went  to  die  at  ThermopyljE  —  of  the  six 
hundred  who  rode  into  the  Jaws  of  Hell,  to  perish  in  vain, 
because  it  was  their  duty  to  do  and  die.  It  is  a  kind  of  in- 
sanity of  which  a  few  specimens  are  scattered  along  the 
course  of  the  human  race  —  and  wherever  they  are  found. 


328  James  Freeman  Clarke. 


they  make  the  glory  of  human  nature,  and  give  us  more 
faith  ia  God  and  man.  Such  men  die,  but  their  act  lives 
forever  — 

Their  memory  wraps  the  dusky  mountain, 
Their  spirit  sparkles  in  the  fountoia  ; 
The  meanest  rill.,  tho  mightiest  river, 
Rolls,  mingling  with  their  fame  forever. 

Tou  cannot  get  away  from  it.  Call  it  fanaticism,  folly, 
madness,  wickedness  —  it  rises  before  you  still  with  its  calm, 
marble  features,  more  terrible  in  defeat  and  death  than  in  life 
and  victory  —  the  awful  lineaments  of  Conscience.  It  is 
one  of  those  acts  of  madness  which  History  cherishes,  and 
•which  Poetry  loves  forever  to  adorn  with  her  choicest  wreaths 
of  laurel. 

One  consequence  of  the  event  will  be,  I  cannot  but  think, 
the  arousing  of  the  Nation's  Conscience.  A  thoroughly  con- 
scientious act  awakens  conscience  in  others.  I  have  already 
mentioned  its  effect  at  the  South.  It  has  commanded  respect 
where  we  might  have  expected,  violence.  The  quality  of 
courage  and  nobleness  in  the  man,  in  all  his  words  and  his 
whole  manner,  have  evidently  produced  a  most  extraordinary 
impression.  No  bravado,  no  timidity — no  concealment,  no 
ostentation  —  perfect  manliness,  truth,  and  honesty,  have  been 
so  conspicuous,  that  these  qualities  have  touched  the  higher 
natures  of  Southern  men,  and  awakened  genuine  feelings  of 
respect  and  admiration.  The  Slaveholders  have  at  last  seen, 
face  to  face,  a  specimen  of  their  bete  noir  —  an  Abolitionist. 
They  find  themselves  compelled  to  respect  him.  Governor 
Wise  now  knows  what  an  Abolitionist  is ;  and  finds  him  no 
a  man  wishing  to  murder  women  and  children,  but  tender  to 
non-combatants,  careful  of  his  prisoners'  lives,  doing  no  need- 
less harm,  but  knowing  no  such  thing  as  fear.  Our  text  says, 
that  "  Herod  feared  John,  knowing  him  to  he  a  jicst  man." 
This  is  one  of  those  wonderful  touches  which  mark  the 
insight  of  the  Scripture.    The  tyrant  on  his  throne,  sur- 


James  Freeman  Clarke.  329 


rounded  by  his  soldiers,  backed  by  the  mighty  power  of 
Rome,  was  afraid  of  the  prophet  in  his  prison  —  afraid  of 
him  in  his  tomb  —  "  knowing  him  to  be  a  just  man."  The 
awful  majesty  of  Justice  penetrated  through  guards  and 
courtiers,  ante-rooms  and  festival  chambers,  and  caused  a 
thrill  of  terror  to  pass  through  the  monarch's  soul.  So  the 
Herod  of  Slavery  fears  John  Brown,  in  his  prison;  will 
continue  to  fear  him,  in  his  tomb  — "  knowing  him  to  be  a 
just  man." 

Ten  thousand  Southern  pulpits  have  been  proving  that 
because  Abraham  held  Slaves,  and  Paul  sent  back  Onesi- 
mus,  therefore  it  is  no  violation  of  the  golden  rule  to  work 
negroes  to  death  on  the  rice  plantations  of  South  Carolina 
and  the  sugar  coast  of  the  Mississippi.  Ten  thousand  able 
editors,  popular  orators,  and  philosophic  professors  have  been 
proving  the  same  thing  from  statistics,  ethnology,  and  anato- 
my. But  here  comes  Old  John  Brown,  believing  Slavery  a 
sin,  and  believing  it  so  much  as  to  fling  his  life  away ;  and  in 
their  hearts  and  souls,  the  reverend  and  learned  arguei's  feel 
that  they  are  so{)hists,  with  no  truth  in  them. 

When  such  a  deed  is  done,  it  is  not  the  actual  deed,  but 
that  which  it  announces,  that  is  terrific.  How  many  more 
John  Browns  may  there  not  be  behind?  —  so  say  in  iheir 
souls  to-day  the  whole  population  south  of  Mason's  and 
Dixon's  line.  This  may  be  only  the  first  drop  of  the  com- 
ing shower.  True,  the  whole  writing  and  speaking,  public  at 
the  North  disavows  and  condemns  the  deed,  but  what  do 
those  think  of  it,  who,  like  John  Brown  himself,  do  not  talk, 
but  act?  I  cannot  tell  —  neither  can  you.  I  know  that 
great  crimes  and  great  virtues  are  contagious.  Suicide  is 
contagious.  Murder  is  contagious.  It  may  be  that  many  a 
man,  sitting  comfortably  in  his  easy  chair,  when  he  read  the 
account,  "wished  himself  accursed  he  was  not  there"  too. 
We  may  be  to-day  on  the  brink  of  a  civil  war.  A  crusade 
is  attractive  to  thousands,  whether  it  be  in  the  form  of  filli- 
28* 


330 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


bustering  against  Cuba,  invading  Kansas  from  Missouri, 
invading  Missouri  from  Kansas,  following  Peter  the  Hermit 
to  Palestine,  or  following  other  John  Browns  into  Virginia. 
I  do  not  believe  in  these  crusades,  any  of  them.  I  think 
them  all  bad  and  wrong.  But  woe  to  the  man  by  whom  the 
oflfence  cometh. 

A  better  result  than  this  will  be  the  swift  depletion  of  the 
border  States  of  their  Slaves,  and  the  turning  of  them  into 
the  ranks  of  the  Free.  The  Governor  of  Virginia  already 
announces  that  no  slaves  can  be  kept  near  the  border  who 
wish  to  escape.  And  one  reason  why  no  Slaves  joined  in 
this  insurrection  is,  no  doubt,  that  most  of  those  who  wished 
Freedom  had  already  gone  away.  If  the  blow  had  been 
struck  further  south,  it  might  have  had  a  different  effect  on 
the  Slave  population. 

There  is  a  sad  day  before  us.  "We  shall  be  obliged  to  wait 
in  silence,  knowing  that  the  soul  of  this  hero  is  departing 
from  the  scaffold  to  the  invisible  world.  But  as  the  motive 
sanctifies  the  action,  so  it  also  glorifies  the  doom.  The  man 
"ivill  go  to  his  death  in  the  same  great  spirit  in  '.vhich  lie  has 
thus  far  spoken  and  lived.  Could  his  life  be  spared,  I  should 
be  grateful ;  if  not,  I  must  remember 

That  wliether  on  the  scafToId  high, 

Or  in  the  battle's  van, 
The  fittest  place  for  man  to  die 

la  where  he  dies  for  man. 

One  lessson  let  us  not  fail  to  gather.  The  only  thing  of 
much  worth  in  life  is  the  spirit  in  which  a  man  acts.  Not 
what  we  do,  but  the  motive  of  the  action,  is  the  great  thing. 
Since  this  affray,  and  the  deaths  at  Harper's  Ferry,  there  has 
been  a  violent  and  extensive  conflict  at  the  polls  at  Baltimore, 
and  perhaps  as  many  men  killed.  But  who  thinks  of  that? 
"Who  cares  for  it?  Who  knows  anything  about  it?  The 
motive  was  ignoble,  a  mere  political  squabble ;  and  they  who 
were  killed  died  like  dogs.    But  here  the  motive  was  noble, 


James  Freeman  Clarke. 


and  they  who  were  shot  down,  fighting  for  it,  fell  like  mar- 
tyrs, and  lie  soiled  with  no  unbecoming  dust. 

The  times  are  dark,  and  may  become  darker.  I  do  not 
expect  much  from  political  parties,  or  from  popular  elections. 
But  I  have  faith  in  the  Divine  Providence  —  feith  in  the 
coming  Kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ — faith  that  He,  the  Master, 
shall  yet  come  to  reign  in  hearts  grateful  for  his  love,  and  in 
minds  submissive  to  his  will.  And,  returning  from  the  con- 
templation of  these  events,  marching  by  us  in  the  steady 
progress  of  history,  to  our  own  private  life  and  duty,  let  us 
imitate  the  conscience  and  the  devotion  to  right  of  all  tliese 
heroic  souls,  and  seek  also  for  the  faith  in  a  Divine  Love 
which  shall  sweeten  tlie  harsh  I'ebuke  with  charity,  and  warm 
our  souls  with  a  hope  full  of  everlasting  peace  and  joy.  Con- 
demning all  violence,  bloodshed,  and  war,  let  us  overcome 
evil  with  good,  and,  whenever  we  speak  the  Truth,  speak  it 
also  in  Love. 


John  Brown's  Final  Victoky. 

Let  them  beat  their  drams  in  triampb, 

While  the  martyr,  Brown, 
Living  bravely,  dying  nobly, 

Wears  the  victor's  crown. 

Summoned  to  bis  home  celestial, 

From  their  brief  control, 
AH  the  hemp  of  rutblcRS  tyrants 

Could  not  hang  his  soul. 

Now  triumphant,  kindred  angels 

Speed  him  to  the  land 
Where  the  Prince  of  holy  martyrs. 

Smiling,  wuita  his  hand. 

Ood  be  thanked,  the  spell  is  broken ! 

Clouds,  affrighted,  fly, 
While  the  sun  of  Truth  is  breaking 

Through  the  angry  sky. 

Ood  te  thanked,  the  dead  are  waking, 

Koueed  by  Freedom's  call  1 
Tyrants,  trembling,  read  the  fearful 

Writing  on  the  wall. 

Let  them  beat  their  drums  in  triumph, 

While  the  martyr.  Brown, 
Living  bravely,  dying  nobly. 

Wears  the  Hero's  crown. 

0.  W.  Lnbt. 


III. 


Letter  from  Mrs.  Mason,  of  Virginia,*  to 
Mrs.  Child,  of  Massachusetts. 

Alto,  King  Geougb's  Co.,  Va.,  Nov.  11,  1859. 

DO  YOU  read  your  Bible,  Mrs.  Child  ?  If  you  do,  read 
there  "  Woe  unto  you,  hypocrites,"  and  take  to  yourself 
with  two-fold  daiunatioD,  that  terrible  sentence;  for,  rest 
assured,  'n  the  day  of  judgment  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for 
those  thus  scathed  by  the  awful  denunciation  of  the  Son  of 
God,  than  for  you.  Tou  would  sooth  with  sisterly  and  moth- 
erly care  the  hoary-headed  murderer  of  Harper's  Ferry !  A 
man  whose  aim  and  intention  was  to  incite  the  horrors  of  a 
servile  war  —  to  condemn  women  of  your  own  race,  ere  death 
closed  their  eyes  on  their  sufferings  from  violence  and  out- 
rage, to  see  their  husbands  and  fathers  murdered,  their 
children  butchered,  the  ground  strewed  with  the  brains  of 
their  babes.  The  antecedents  of  Brown's  band  prove  them 
to  have  been  the  offscourings  of  the  earth ;  and  what  would 
have  been  our  fate  had  they  found  as  many  sympathizers  in 
Virginia  as  they  seem  to  have  in  Massachusetts  ? 

Now,  compare  yourself  with  those  your  "  sympathy  "  would 
devote  to  such  ruthless  ruin,  and  say,  on  that  "  word  of  honor, 
which  never  has  been  broken,"  would  you  stand  by  the  bed- 
side of  an  old  negro,  dying  of  a  hcpeless  disease,  to  alleviate 
his  sufferings  as  far  as  human  aid  could  ?  Have  i/ou  ever 
watched  the  last  lingering  illness  of  a  consumptive,  to  soothe, 

*  Wife  of  Senator  Mason,  author  of  tho  Fu(;itivo  Slave  Utvr. 

(333) 


334        Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


as  far  as  in  you  lay,  the  inevitable  fate?  Do  you  soften  the 
pangs  of  maternity  in  those  around  you  by  all  the  care  and 
comfort  you  can  give  ?  Do  you  grieve  with  those  near  you, 
even  though  their  resulted  from  their  own  mis- 

conduct ?  Did  1/ou  ever  sit  up  until  the  "  wee  hours  "  to 
complete  a  dress  for  a  motherless  child,  tliat  she  might  appear 
on  Christmas  day  in  a  new  one,  along  with  her  more  fortu- 
nate companions  ?  We  do  these  and  more  for  our  servants ; 
and  why  ?  Because  we  endeavor  to  do  our  duty  in  that  state 
of  life  it  has  pleased  God  to  place  us.  In  His  revealed  Avord 
we  read  our  duties  to  them  —  theirs  to  us  are  there  also  — 
"JSTot  only  to  the  good  and  gentle,  but  to  the  froward." 
(Peter  ii:  18.)  Go  thou  and  do  likewise,  and  keep  away 
from  Charlestown.  If  the  stories  read  in  the  public  prints  be 
true,  of  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  of  the  North,  you  need  not 
go  far  for  objects  of  charity.  "  Thou  hypocrite !  take  first  the 
beam  out  of  thine  own  eye,  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  pull 
the  mote  out  of  thy  neighbor's."  But  if,  indeed,  you  do  lack 
objects  of  sympathy  near  you,  go  to  Jefferson  County,  to  the 
family  of  George  Turner,  a  noble,  true-hearted  man,  Avhose 
devotion  to  his  friend  (Colonel  Washington)  causing  him  to 
risk  his  life,  was  shot  down  like  a  dog.  Or  to  that  of  old 
Beckham,  whose  grief  at  the  murder  of  his  negro  subordinate 
made  him  needlessly  expose  himself  to  the  aim  of  the  assassin 
Brown.  And  when  you  can  equal  in  deeds  of  love  and  char- 
ity to  those  around  you  what  is  shown  by  nine-tenths  of  the 
Virginia  plantations,  then  by  your  "sympathy"  whet  the 
knives  for  our  throats  and  kindle  the  torch  that  fires  our 
homes.  You  reverence  Brown  for  his  clemency  to  his  pris- 
oners !  Prisoners !  and  how  taken  ?  Unsuspecting  workmen, 
going  to  their  daily  duties ;  unarmed  gentlemen,  taken  from 
their  beds  at  the  dead  hour  of  the  night,  by  six  men  dbubly 
and  trebly  armed.  Suppose  he  had  hurt  a  hair  of  their  heads ; 
do  you  think  one  of  the  band  of  desperadoes  would  have  left 
the  engine-house  alive  ?   And  did  not  he  know  that  his  treat- 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  333 


ment  of  them  was  his  only  hope  of  life  then,  or  of  clemency 
afterwards  ?  Of  course  ho  did.  The  United  States  troops 
could  not  have  prevented  him  from  being  torn  limb  from 
limb. 

I  will  add,  in  conclusion,  no  Southerner  ought,  after  your 
letter  to  Governor  Wise  and  to  Brown,  to  read  a  line  of  your 
composition,  or  to  touch  a  magazine  which  bears  your  name 
in  its  list  of  contributors ;  and  in  this  we  hope  for  the  "  sym- 
pathy "  at  least  of  those  at  the  North  who  deserve  the  name 
of  woman. 


To  Mbs.  L.  Mabia  Child. 


Reply  of  Mrs.  Child 

WaylanDs  Mass.,  Dec.  17,  1859. 

Prolonged  absence  from  home  has  prevented  ray  answer- 
ing your  letter  so  soon  as  I  intendod.  I  have  no  disposition 
to  retort  upon  you  the  "  two-fold  damnation,"  to  which  you 
consign  me.  On  the  contrary,  I  sincerely  wish  you  well, 
both  in  this  world  and  the  next.  If  the  anathema  proved 
a  safety-valve  to  your  own  boiling  spirit,  it  did  some  good 
to  you,  while  it  fell  harmless  upon  me.  Fortunately  for 
all  of  us,  the  Heavenly  Father  rules  his  universe  by  laws 
which  the  passions  or  the  prejudices  of  mortals  have  no 
power  to  change. 

As  for  John  Brown,  his  reputation  may  be  safely  trusted  to 
the  impartial  pen  of  History ;  and  his  motives  will  be  right- 
eously judged  by  Him  who  knoweth  the  secrets  of  all  hearts. 
Men,  however  great  they  may  be,  are  of  small  consequence  in 
cx)mparison  with  principles  5  and  the  principle  for  which  John 
Brown  died  is  the  question  at  issue  between  us. 


336         Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs,  Child 


You  refer  me  to  the  Bible,  from  which  you  quote  the  favor- 
ite text  of  slaveholders ; 

"  Servants,  be  subject  to  your  masters  with  all  fear ;  not  only  to  the 
gooc'  and  gentle,  but  also  to  the  froward."  —  1  Peter  ii.  18. 

Abolitionists  also  have  favorite  texts,  to  some  of  which  I 
would  call  your  attention : 

"  Bemtmber  those  that  are  in  bonds,  as  bound  with  them."  —  Heb. 

xiii.  3. 

Hide  the  outcasts.  Betray  not  him  that  wandereth.  Let  mine 
outcasts  dwell  -with  thee.  Be  thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of 
the  spoiler."  —  Isa.  xvi.  3,  4. 

'« Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  servant  which  is  es- 
caped firom  his  master  imto  thee.  He  shall  dwell  with  thee,  where  it 
liketh  him  best.   Thou  shalt  not  oppress  him."  —  Deut.  xxiii.  15,  16. 

Open  thy  mouth  for  the  dumb,  in  the  cause  of  all  such  as  are  ap- 
pointed to  destruction.  Open  thy  mouth,  judge  righteously,  and 
plead  the  cause  of  the  poor  and  needy."  —  Prov.  xxxi.  8,  9. 

"  Cry  aloud,  spare  not,  lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trumpet,  and  show 
my  people  their  transgression,  and  the  house  of  Israel  their  sins.  "  — 
Isa.  Iviii.  1. 

I  would  especially  commend  to  slaveholders  the  following 
portions  of  that  volume,  wherein  you  say  God  has  revealed 
the  duty  of  masters : 

"  Masters,  give  unto  your  servants  that  which  is  just  and  equal ; 
knowing  that  ye  also  have  a  Master  in  heaven."  —  Col.  iv.  1. 

"  Neither  be  ye  called  masters ;  for  one  is  your  master,  even  Christ ; 
and  all  ye  are  brethren."  —  Matt,  xxiii.  8,  10. 

Whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even 
so  unto  them."  —  Matt.  vii.  12. 

Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen,  to  loose  the  bonds  of 
w^ickedness,  to  tuido  the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go 
£ree,  and  that  ye  break  every  yoke  ? "  —  Isa.  Iviii,  6. 

«» They  have  given  a  boy  for  a  harlot,  and  sold  a  girl  for  wine,  that 
they  might  drink."  — Joel  iii.  3. 

«•  He  that  oppresseth  the  poor  reproacheth  his  Maker."  —  Prov. 

xiv.  31. 

»•  Eob  not  the  poor,  because  he  is  poor ;  neither  oppress  the  afflicted. 
For  the  Lord  will  plead  their  cause,  and  spoil  the  soul  of  those  that 
spoil  them."  —  Prov.  xxL.  22,  23. 

«« Woe  unto  him  that  useth  his  neighbor's  service  without  wages, 
and  giveth  him  not  for  his  work."  —  Jer.  xxii.  13. 

••Let  him  that  stuio,  steal  no  more,  but  rather  let  him  labor,  work- 
ing with  his  hands.'-'  —  Eph.  iv.  28. 

•"  Woe  unto  them  that  decree  unrighteous  decrees,  and  that  write 
grievousness,  which  they  have  prescribed ;  to  turn  aside  the  needy 
£com  judgment,  and  to  tr»ke  av/ay  the  right  from  the  poor,  that 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  337 

"(pidowB  may  be  their  prey,  and  that  they  may  rob  the  fatherlsas."  — 
Isa.  X.  1,  2. 

If  I  did  despise  the  cause  of  my  man-servant,  or  my  maid-ser- 
vant when  they  contended  with  me,  what  then  shall  I  do  when  God 
riseth  up  ?  and  when  he  -sisiteth,  what  shall  I  answer  him  ?  "  —  Job 
xxxi.  13,  14. 

"  Thou  hast  sent  ividows  away  empty,  and  the  arms  of  the  father- 
less have  been  broken.  Therefore  snares  are  round  about  thee,  and 
sudden  fear  troubleth  thee ;  and  darkness,  that  thou  canst  not  see." 
Job  xxii.  9,  10,  11. 

<•  Behold  the  hire  of  your  laborers,  who  have  reaped  do^vn  your 
fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back  by  fraud,  crieth ;  and  the  cries  of 
them  which  have  reaped  are  entered  into  the  cars  of  the  Lord.  Ye 
have  lived  in  pleasure  on  the  earth,  and  been  wanton  ;  ye  have  nour- 
ished your  hearts  as  in  a  day  of  slaughter ;  ye  have  condemned  and 
killed  the  just."  —  James  v.  4. 

If  the  appropriateness  of  these  texts  is  not  apparent,  I  will 
try  to  make  it  so,  by  evidence  drawn  entirely  from  Sovihem 
sources.  The  Abolitionists  are  not  such  an  ignorant  set  of 
fanatics  as  you  suppose.  They  know  whereof  they  affirm. 
They  are  familiar  with  the  laws  of  the  Slave  States,  which 
are  alone  sufficient  to  inspire  abhorrence  in  any  humane  heart 
or  reflecting  mind  not  perverted  by  the  prejudices  of  educa- 
tion and  custom.  I  might  fill  many  letters  with  significant 
extracts  from  your  statute  books ;  but  I  have  space  only  to 
glance  at  a  few,  which  indicate  the  leading  features  of  the 
system  you  cherish  so  tenaciously. 

The  universal  rule  of  the  Slave  States  is,  that  "  the  child 
follows  the  condition  of  its  mother."  This  is  an  index  to 
many  things.  Marriages  between  white  and  colored  people 
are  forbidden  by  law ;  yet  a  very  large  number  of  the  slaves 
are  brown  or  yellow.  When  Lafayette  visited  this  country  in 
his  old  age,  he  said  he  was  very  much  struck  by  the  great 
change  in  the  colored  population  of  Virginia ;  that  in  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  nearly  all  the  household  slaves  were  black ; 
but  when  he  returned  to  America  he  found  very  few  of  them 
black.  The  advertisements  in  Southern  nevrspapers  often 
describe  runaway  slaves  that  "  pass  themselves  far  white  men." 
Sometimes  they  are  described  as  having  straight,  light  hair, 
29 


338         Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


blue  eyes,  and  clear  complexion."  This  could  not  be,  unless 
their  fathers,  grandfathers,  and  great-grandfathers  had  been 
white  men.  But  as  their  mothers  were  slaves,  the  law  pro- 
nounces them  slaves,  subject  to  be  sold  on  the  auction-block 
whenever  the  necessities  or  convenience  of  their  masters  or 
mistresses  require  it.  The  sale  of  one's  own  children,  brothers, 
or  sisters,  has  an  ugly  aspect  to  those  who  are  unaccustomed 
to  it;  and,  obviously,  it  cannot  have  a  good  moral  influence 
that  law  and  custom  should  render  licentiousness  a  profit- 
able vice. 

Throughout  the  Slave  States,  the  testimony  of  no  colored 
person,  bond  or  free,  can  be  received  against  a  white  man. 
You  have  some  laws  which,  on  the  face  of  them,  would  seem 
to  restrain  inhuman  men  from  murdering  or  mutilating  slaves; 
but  they  are  rendered  nearly  null  by  the  law  I  have  cited. 
Any  drunken  master,  overseer,  or  patrol,  may  go  into  the 
negro  cabins  and  commit  what  outrages  he  pleases,  with  per- 
fect impunity,  if  no  white  person  is  present  who  chooses  to 
witness  against  him.  North  Carolina  and  Georgia  leave  a 
large  loophole  for  escapes,  even  if  white  persons  are  presenty 
when  murder  is  committed.  A  law  to  punish  persons  for 
"  maliciously  killing  a  slave "  has  this  remarkable  qualifica- 
tion: "  Always  provided  that  this  act  shall  not  extend  to  any 
slave  dying  of  moderate  connection."  "We,  at  the  North,  find 
it  difficult  to  understand  how  moderate  punishment  can  cause 
death,  I  have  read  several  of  your  law  books  attentively,  and 
I  find  no  cases  of  punishment  for  the  murder  of  a  slave,  except 
by  fines  paid  to  the  owner,  to  indemnify  him  for  the  loss  of  his 
-property:  the  same  as  if  his  horse  or  cow  had  been  killed.  In 
the  South  Carolina  Reports  is  a  case  where  the  State  indicted 
Guy  Raines  for  the  murder  of  a  slave  named  Isaac.  It  was 
proved  that  William  Gray,  the  owner  of  Isaac,  had  given  him  a 
thousand  lashes.  The  poor  creature  made  his  escape,  but  was 
caught,  and  delivered  to  the  custody  of  Raines,  to  be  carried 
to  the  county  jail.   Beca^se  he  refused  to  go,  Raines  gave 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  339 


him  five  hundred  lashes,  and  he  died  soon  after.  The  counsel 
for  Raines  proposed  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  acquit  him- 
self by  his  owti  oath.  The  court  decided  against  it,  because 
whi'3  witnesses  had  testified;  but  the  Court  of  Appeals  after- 
wards decided  that  he  ought  to  have  been  exculpated  by  his 
own  oath,  and  he  was  acquitted.  Small  indeed  is  the  chance 
for  justice  to  a  slave,  when  his  own  color  are  not  allowed  to 
testify,  if  they  see  him  maimed  or  his  children  murdered; 
when  he  has  slaveholders  for  Judges  and  Jurors ;  when  the 
murderer  can  exculpate  himself  by  his  own  oath ;  and  when 
the  law  provides  that  it  is  no  murder  to  kill  a  slav3  by 
"  moderate  correction  "  ! 

Your  laws  uniformly  declare  that  "  a  slave  shall  be  deemed 
a  chattel  personal  in  the  hands  of  his  owner,  to  all  intents, 
constructions,  and  purposes  whatsoeveir."  This,  of  course, 
involves  the  right  to  sell  his  children,  as  if  they  were  pigs ; 
also,  to  take  his  wife  from  him  "  for  any  intent  or  purpose 
whatsoever."  Your  laws  also  make  it  death  for  him  to  resist 
a  white  man,  however  brutally  he  may  be  treated,  or  however 
much  his  family  may  be  outraged  before  his  eyes.  If  he 
attempts  to  run  away,  your  laws  allow  any  man  to  shoot  him. 

By  your  laws,  all  a  slave's  earnings  belong  to  his  master. 
He  can  neither  receive  donations  nor  transmit  property.  If 
his  master  allows  him  some  hours  to  work  for  himself,  and  by 
great  energy  and  perseverance  he  earns  enough  to  buy  his  own 
bones  and  sinews,  his  master  may  make  him  pay  two  or  three 
times  over,  and  he  has  no  redress.  Three  such  cases  have 
come  within  my  own  knowledge.  Even  a  written  promise 
from.his  master  has  no  legal  value,  because  a  slave  can  make 
no  contracts. 

Your  laws  also  systematically  aim  at  keeping  the  minds  of 
the  colored  people  in  the  most  abject  state  of  ignorance.  If 
white  people  attempt  to  teach  them  to  read  or  write,  they  are 
punished  by  imprisonment,  or  fines ;  if  they  attempt  to  teach 
each  other,  they  are  punished  with  from  twenty  to  thirty-nine 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


lashes  each.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Anti-Slavery  agitation 
produced  such  laws,  for  they  date  much  farther  back;  many 
of  them  when  we  were  Provinces.  They  are  the  necessities 
of  the  system,  which,  being  itself  an  outrage  upon  human 
nature,  can  be  sustained  only  by  perpetual  outrages. 

The  next  reliable  source  of  information  is  the  advertise- 
ments in  Southern  newspapers.  In  The  North  Carolina 
(Kaleigh)  Standard,  Mr.  Micajah  Eicks  advertises,  "  Eun- 
away,  a  regro  woman  and  two  children.  A  few  days  before 
she  went  off,  I  burned  her  with  a  hot  iron  on  the  left  side  of 
her  face.  I  tried  to  make  the  letter  M."  In  The  Natchez 
Courier,  Mr.  J.  P.  Ashford  advertises  a  runaway  negro  girl, 
with  "  a  good  many  teeth  missing,  and  the  letter  A  branded 
on  her  cheek  and  forehead."  In  The  Lexington  Observer, 
(Ky.,)  Mr.  William  Overstreet  advertises  a  runaway  negro, 
with  "  his  left  eye  out,  scars  from  a  dirk  on  his  left  arm,  and 
much  scarred  with  the  whip."  I  might  quote  from  hundreds 
of  such  advertisements,  offering  rewards  for  runaways,  "dead 
cr  alive,"  and  describing  them  with  "ears  cut  off,"  "jaws 
broken,"  "  scarred  by  rifle  balls,"  &c. 

Another  source  of  information  is  afforded  by  your  "  Fugi- 
tives from  Injustice,"  with  many  of  whom  I  have  conversed 
freely.  I  have  seen  scars  of  the  whip  and  marks  of  the 
branding-iron,  and  I  have  listened  to  their  heart-breaking 
sobs,  while  they  told  of  "  picaninnies "  torn  from  their  arms 
and  sold. 

Another  source  of  information  is  furnished  by  emancipated 
slaveholders.  Sarah  M.  Grimk^,  daughter  of  the  late  Judge 
Grimk^,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  South  Carolina,  testifies  as 
follows :  "As  I  left  my  native  State  on  account  of  Slavery, 
and  deserted  the  home  of  my  fathers  to  escape  the  sound  of  the 
lash  and  the  shrieks  of  tortured  victims,  I  would  gladly  bury  in 
oblivion  the  recollection  of  those  scenes  with  which  I  have 
been  familiar.  But  this  cannot  be.  They  come  over  my 
memory  like  gory  spectres,  and  implore  me,  with  resistless 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  341 

power,  in  the  name  of  a  God  of  mercy,  in  the  name  of  a  cru- 
cified Saviour,  in  the  name  of  humanity,  for  the  sake  of  the 
slaveholder,  as  well  as  the  slave,  to  bear  witness  to  the  horrors 
of  the  Southern  prison-house."  She  proceeds  to  describe 
dreadful  tragedies,  the  actors  in  which,  she  says,  were  "  men 
and  women  of  the  first  families  in  South  Carolina;"  and  that 
their  cruelties  did  not,  in  the  slightest  degree,  affect  their 
standing  in  society.  Her  sister,  Angelina  Grimke,  declared: 
"  While  I  live,  and  Slavery  lives,  I  must  testify  against  it, 
not  merely  for  the  sake  of  my  poor  brothers  and  sisters  in 
bonds ;  for  even  were  Slavery  no  curse  to  its  victims,  the 
exercise  of  arbitrary  power  works  such  fearful  ruin  upon  the 
hearts  of  slaveholders,  that  I  should  feel  impelled  to  labor  and 
pray  for  its  overthrow  with  my  latest  breath."  Among  the 
horrible  barbarities  she  enumerates  is  the  case  of  a  girl, 
thirteen  years  old,  who  was  flogged  to  death  by  her  master. 
She  says :  "  I  asked  a  prominent  lawyer,  who  belonged  to  one 
of  the  first  families  in  the  State,  whether  the  murderer  of  this 
helpless  child  could  not  be  indicted ;  and  he  cooly  replied,  that 

the  slave  was  Mr.  ^"s  property,  and  if  he  chose  to  suffer 

the  loss,  no  one  else  had  any  thing  to  do  with  it."  She  pro- 
ceeds to  say :  "  I  felt  there  could  be  for  me  no  rest  in  the 
midst  of  such  outrages  and. pollutions.  Yet  I  saw  nothing  of 
Slavery  in  its  most  vulgar  and  repulsive  forms.  I  saw  it  in 
the  city,  among  the  fashionable  and  the  honorable,  where  it 
was  garnished  by  refinement  and  decked  out  for  show.  It  is 
my  deep,  solemn,  deliberate  conviction,  that  this  is  a  cause 
worth  dying  for.  I  say  so  from  what  I  have  seen,  and  heard, 
and  known  in  a  land  of  Slavery,  whereon  rest  the  darkness 
of  Egypt  and  the  sin  of  Sodom."  I  once  asked  Miss  Angelina 
if  she  thought  Abolitionists  exaggerated  the  horrors  of  Slavery. 
She  replied,  with  earnest  emphasis :  "  They  cannot  be  exag- 
gerated. It  is  impossible  for  imagination  to  go  beyond  the 
facts."  To  a  lady,  who  observed  that  the  lime  had  not  yet 
come  for  agitating  the  subject,  she  answered :  "  I  apprehend 
29*  . 


342         Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


if  thou  wert  a  slave,  toiling  in  the  fields  of  Carolina,  thou 
wouldst  think  the  time  had  fully  come." 

Mr.  Thome,  of  Kentucky,  in  the  course  of  his  eloquent 
lectures  on  this  subject,  said :  "  I  breathed  ray  first  breath  in 
an  atmosphere  of  Slavery.  But  though  I  am  heir  to  a  slave 
inheritance,  I  am  bold  to  denounce  the  whole  systena  as  ati 
outrage,  a  complication  of  crimes,  and  wrongs,  and  cruelties, 
that  make  angels  weep." 

Mr.  Allen,  of  Alabama,  in  a  discussion  with  the  students 
at  Lane  Seminary,  in  1834,  told  of  "  a  slave  who  was  tied  up 
and  beaten  all  day,  with  a  paddle  full  of  holes.  At  night,  his 
flesh  was  literally  pounded  to  a  jelly.  The  punishment  was 
inflicted  within  hearing  of  the  Academy  and  the  Public  Green. 
But  no  one  took  any  notice  of  it.  No  one  thought  any  wrong 
was  done.  At  our  house,  it  is  so  common  to  hear  screams 
from  a  neighboring  plantation,  that  we  think  nothing  of  it. 
Lest  any  one  should  think  that  the  slaves  are  generally  well 
treated,  and  that  the  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  exceptions, 
let  me  be  distinctly  understood  that  cruelty  is  tha  rule,  and 
kindness  is  the  exception." 

In  the  same  discussion,  a  student  from  Virginia,  after 
relating  cases  of  great  cruelty,  said :  "  Such  things  are  com- 
mon all  over  Virginia;  at  least,  so  far  as  I  am  acquainted. 
But  the  planters  generally  avoid  punishing  their  slaves  before 
strangers" 

Miss  Mattie  Grifiith,  of  Kentucky,  whose  entire  property 
consisted  in  slaves,  emancipated  them  all.  The  noble-hearted 
girl  wrote  to  me :  "  I  shall  go  forth  into  the  world  penniless ; 
but  I  shall  work  with  a  light  heart,  and,  best  of  all,  I  shall 
live  with  an  easy  conscience."  Previous  to  this  generous 
resolution,  she  had  never  read  any  Abolition  documents,  and 
entertained  the  common  Southern  prejudice  against  them. 
But  her  own  observation  so  deeply  impressed  her  with  the 
enormities  of  Slavery,  that  she  was  impelled  to  publish  a 
book,  called  "  The  Autobiography  of  a  Female  Slave."  I 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  343 


read  it  with  thrilling  interest ;  but  some  of  the  scenes  made 
my  nerves  quiver  so  painfully,  that  I  told  her  I  hoped  they 
were  too  highly  colored.  She  shook  her  head  sadly,  and 
replied :  "  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  every  incident  in  the  book 
has  come  within  my  own  knowledge." 

St.  George  Tucker,  Judge  and  Professor  of  Law  in  Vir- 
ginia, speaking  of  the  legalized  murder  of  runaways,  said : 
"  Such  are  the  cruelties  to  which  a  state  of  Slavery  jives 
birth — sutsh  the  horrors  to  which  the  human  mind  is  capable 
of  being  reconciled  by  its  adoption."  Alluding  to  our  strug- 
gle in  '76,  he  said:  "While  we  proclaimed  our  resolution  to 
live  free  or  die,  we  imposed  on  our  fellow-men,  of  different 
complexion,  a  Slavery  ten  thousand  times  worse  than  the 
utmost  extremity  of  the  oppressions  of  which  we  complained," 

Governor  Giles,  in  a  Message  to  the  Legislature  of  Vir- 
ginia, referring  to  the  custom  of  selling  free  colored  people 
into  Slavery,  as  a  punishment  for  offences  not  capital,  said : 
"  Slavery  must  be  admitted  to  be  a  punishment  of  the  highest 
order ;  and,  according  to  the  just  rule  for  tha  apportionment 
of  punishment  to  crimes,  it  ought  to  be  applied  only  to  crimes 
of  the  highest  order.  The  most  distressing  reflection  in  the 
application  of  this  punishment  to  female  offenders,  is  that  it 
extends  to  their  offspring ;  and  the  innocent  are  thus  punished 
with  the  guilty."  Yet  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  in- 
nocent babes  in  this  country  are  annually  subjected  to  a  pun- 
ishment which  your  Governor  declared  ought  to  be  applied 
only  to  crimes  of  the  highest  order. 

Jefferson  said :  "  One  day  of  American  Slavery  is  worse 
than  a  thousand  years  of  that  which  we  rose  in  arms  to  oppose." 
Alluding  to  insiv.rections,  he  said:  "The  Almighty  has  no 
attribute  that  can  take  side  with  us  in  such  a  contest." 

John  Randolph  declared :  "  Every  planter  is  a  sentinel  at 
his  own  door.  Every  Southern  mother,  when  she  hears  an 
alarm  of  fire  in  the  night,  instinctively  presses  her  infant 
closer  to  her  bosom." 


344         M^s.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


.  Looking  at  the  system  of  Slavery  in  the  light  of  all  thia 
evidence,  do  you  candidly  think  wo  deserve  "two-fold  damna- 
tion "  for  detesting  it  ?  Can  you  not  believe  that  we  mfty  hate 
the  system,  and  yet  be  truly  your  friends  ?  I  make  allowance 
for  the  excited  state  of  your  mind,  and  for  the  prejudices  in- 
d'lced  by  education.  I  do  not  care  to  change  your  opinion  of 
me ;  but  I  do  wish  you  could  be  persuaded  to  examine  this 
subject  dispassionately,  for  the  sake  of  the  prosperity  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  welfare  of  unborn  generations,  both  white  and 
colored.  For  thirty  years,  Abolitionists  have  been  trying  to 
reason  with  slaveholders,  through  the  press,  and  in  the  halls 
of  Congress.  Their  efforts,  though  directed  to  the  masters 
only,  have  been  met  with  violence  and  abuse  almost  equal  to 
that  poured  on  the  head  of  John  Brown.  Yet  surely  we,  as  a 
portion  of  the  Union,  involved  in  the  expense,  the  degeneracy, 
the  danger,  and  the  disgrace,  of  this  iniquitous  and  fatal  sys- 
tem, have  a  right  to  speak  about  it,  and  a  right  to  be  heard 
also.  At  the  North,  we  willingly  publish  Pro-Slavery  argu- 
ments, and  ask  only  a  fair  field  and  no  favor  for  the  other 
side.  But  you  will  not  even  allow  your  own  citizens  a  chance 
to  examine  this  important  subject.  Your  letter  to  me  is  pub- 
lished in  Northern  papers,  as  well  as  Southern ;  but  my  reply 
will  not  be  allowed  to  appear  in  any  Southern  paper.  The 
despotic  measures  you  lake  to  silence  investigation,  and  slmt 
out  the  light  from  your  own  white  population,  proves  how  little 
reliance  you  have  on  the  strength  of  your  cause.  In  this 
enlightened  age,  all  despotisms  ought  to  come  to  an  end  by  the 
agency  of  moral  and  rational  means.  But  if  they  resist  such 
agencie?,  it  is  in  the  order  of  Providence  that  they  must  come 
to  an  end  by  violence.    History  is  full  of  such  lessons. 

Would  that  the  veil  of  prejudice  could  be  removed  from 
your  eyes.  If  you  would  candidly  examine  the  statements 
of  Governor  Hincks  of  the  British  West  Indies,  and  of  the 
lifcv.  Mr.  Bleeby,  long  time  a  Missionary  in  those  Islands, 
both  before  and  after  emancipation,  you  could  not  fail  to  be 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  345 


convinced  that  Cash  is  a  more  powerful  incentive  to  labor  than 
the  Lash,  and  far  safer  also.  One  fact  in  relation  to  those 
Islands  is  very  significant.  While  the  working-people  were 
slaves,  it  was  always  necessary  to  order  out  the  military  during 
the  Christmas  holidays ;  but,  since  emancipation,  not  a  soldier 
is  to  be  seen.  A  hundred  John  Browns  might  land  there, 
without  exciting  the  slightest  alarm. 

To  the  personal  questions  you  ask  me,  I  will  reply  in  the 
name  of  all  the  women  of  New-England.  It  would  be  ex- 
tremely diflScult  to  find  any  woman  in  our  villages  who  does 
not  sew  for  the  poor,  and  watch  with  the  sick,  whenever  occa- 
sion requires.  We  pay  our  domestics  generous  wages,  with 
which  they  can  purchase  as  mslny  Christmas  gowns  as  they 
please ;  a  process  far  better  for  their  characters,  as  well  as  our 
own,  than  to  receive  their  clothing  as  a  charity,  after  being 
deprived  of  just  payment  for  their  labor.  I  have  never  known 
an  instance  where  the  "pangs  of  maternity"  did  not  meet 
with  requisite  assistance ;  and  here  at  the  North,  after  we  have 
helped  the  mothers,  we  do  not  sell  the  babies. 

I  readily  believe  what  you  state  concerning  the  kindness 
of  many  Virginia  matrons.  It  is  creditable  to  their  hearts ; 
but  after  all,  the  best  that  can  be  done  in  that  way  is  a  poor 
equivalent  for  the  perpetual  wrong  done  to  the  slaves,  and  the 
terrible  liabilities  to  which  they  are  always  subject.  Kind 
masters  and  mistresses  among  you  are  merely  lucky  accidents. 
If  any  one  cliooses  to  be  a  brutal  despot,  your  laws  and  cus- 
toms give  him  complete  power  to  do  so.  And  the  lot  of 
those  slaves  who  have  the  kindest  masters  is  exceedingly 
precarious.  In  case  of  death,  or  pecuniary  difficulties,  or 
marriages  in  the  family,  they  may  at  any  time  be  suddenly 
transferred  from  protection  and  indulgence  to  personal  degra- 
dation, or  extreme  severity ;  and  if  they  should  try  to  escape 
from  such  sufierings,  any  body  is  authorized  to  shoot  them 
down  like  dogs. 

AVith  regard  to  your  declaration  that  "  no  Southerner  ought 


346        Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child. 


henceforth  to  read  a  line  of  my  composition,"  I  reply,  that  I 
have  great  satisfaction  in  the  consciousness  of  having  nothing 
to  lose  in  that  quarter.  Twenty-seven  years  ago,  I  published 
a  book,  called  "  An  Appeal  in  behalf  of  that  Class  of  Ameri- 
cans called  Africans."  It  influenced  the  minds  of  several 
young  men,  afterwards  conspicuous  in  public  life,  through 
whose  agency  the  cause  was  better  served  than  it  could  have 
been  by  me.  From  that  time  to  this,  I  have  labored  too 
earnestly  for  the  slave  to  be  agreeable  to  slaveholders.  Lit- 
erary popularity  was  never  a  paramount  object  with  me,  even 
in  my  youth;  and,  now  that  I  am  old,  I  am  utterly  ^ .vdifferent 
to  it.  But,  if  I  cared  fox'  the  exclusion  you  threaten,  I  should 
at  least  have  the  consolation  of  being  exiled  with  honorable 
company.  Dr.  Channing's  writings,  mild  and  candid  as  they 
are,  breathe  what  you  would  call  arrant  treason.  "William  C. 
Bryant,  in  his  capacity  of  editor,  is  openly  on  our  side.  The 
inspired  muse  of  Whittier  has  incessantly  sounded  the  trumpet 
for  moral  warfare  with  your  iniquitous  institution;  and  his 
stirring  tones  have  been  answered,  more  or  less  loudly,  by 
Pierpont,  Lowell,  and  Longfellow.  Emerson,  the  Plato  of 
America,  leaves  the  scholastic  seclusion  he  loves  so  well,  and, 
disliking  noise,  with  all  his  poetic  soul,  bravely  takes  his  stand 
among  the  trumpeters.  George  W.  Curtis,  the  brilliant  writer, 
the  eloquent  lecturer,  the  elegant  man  of  the  world,  lays  the 
wealth  of  his  talent  on  the  altar  of  Freedom,  and  makes  com- 
mon cause  with  rough-shod  reformers. 

The  genius  of  Mrs.  Stowe  carried  the  outworks  of  your 
institution  at  one  dash,  and  lefl  the  citadel  open  to  besiegers, 
who  are  pouring  in  amain.  In  the  church,  on  the  ultra- 
liberal  side,  it  is  assisted  by  the  powerful  battering-ram  of 
Theodore  Parker's  eloquence.  On  the  extreme  orthodox  side 
is  set  a  huge  fire,  kindled  by  the  burning  words  of  Dr.  Clieever. 
Between  them,  is  Henry  "Ward  Beecher,  sending  a  shower 
of  keen  arrows  into  your  entrenchments ;  and  with  him  ride  a 
troop  of  sharp-shooters  from  all  sects.   If  you  turn  to  the 


Mrs.  Mafon  &  Mrs.  Child.  347 


literature  of  England  or  France,  you  will  find  your  institution 
treated  with  as  little  favor.  The  fact  is,  the  whole  civilized 
world  proclaims  Slavery  an  outlaw,  and  the  best  intellect  of 


the  age  is  active  in  hunting  it  down. 


To  Mes.  M.  J.  C.  Masox. 


THE  HERO'S  HEART. 


A  •wiNTEK  sunshine,  still  and  bright, 
The  Blue  Hills  bathed  with  golden  light, 
And  earth  seemed  smiling  to  the  sky, 
When  calmly  he  went  forth  to  die. 

Infernal  passions  festered  there, 
Where  peaceful  nature  looked  so  fair ; 
And  fiercely,  in  the  morning  sun, 
Flashed  glittering  bayonet  and  gun. 

The  old  man  met  no  friendly  eye, 
When  last  he  looked  on  earth  and  sky ; 
But  one  small  child,  with  timid  air. 
Was  gazing  on  his  silver  hair. 

As  that  dark  brow  to  his  upturned, 
The  tender  heart  within  him  yearned  i 
And,  fondly  stooping  o'er  her  face. 
He  kissed  her,  for  her  injured  race. 

The  little  one,  she  knew  not  why 
That  kind  old  man  went  forth  to  die ; 
Nor  why,  mid  all  that  pomp  and  stir, 
He  stooped  to  give  a  kiss  to  her. 

But  Jesus  smiled  that  sight  to  see, 
And  said,  "  He  did  it  unto  me  "  / 
The  golden  harps  then  sweetly  rung, 
And  this  the  song  the  Angels  sung: 

"  Who  lo%'es  the  poor  doth  love  the  Lord ! 
Earth  cannot  dim  thy  bright  reward ; 
We  hover  o'er  yon  gallows  high, 
And  wait  to  bear  thee  to  the  sky." 

L.  Maria  Chils. 


IV. 


Sermon  by  Rev.  M.  D.  Conway.* 

I OFTEN  ask  myself  the  question,  How  far  shall  I  trust 
my  own  heart  in  speaking  to  you,  my  fellow-beings,  from 
this  pulpit  to  which  you  have  called  me,  and  which  should  ever 
stand  for  that  which  is  most  sacred  within  you  ?  iShall  I  come 
a  Utile  way  out  of  my  self-hood,  and  speak  of  what  I  may  be 
expected  to  be  interested  in  as  a  preacher,  whilst  as  a  man  I 
am  really  indifferent  about  it  ?  Shall  I  speak  here  —  where 
of  all  other  places  the  burden  of  God  most  rests  upon  my 
shoulders  —  of  one  thing,  whilst  every  drop  of  blood  in  my 
heart  is  stirred  by  another? 

This  questioning  urged  itself  very  gravely  upon  me  lately, 
when  I  was  informed  that  my  discourse  upon  the  Insurrection 
in  Virginia  had  been  a  hard  thing  for  my  people  to  bear,  and 
had  cost  me  some  influential  friends.  Never  did  a  church 
need  friends  more  than  ours,  and  every  additional  alienation 
must  be  felt  heavy  enough.  But  the  only  fatal  loss  to  us  will 
be  when  Truth,  Justice,  and  Freedom  cease  to  be  our  friends, 
and  we  theirs.  Therefore,  I  must  still  abide  by  the  motto  of 
my  ministry,  long  ago  taken,  and  often  urged  here,  —  Deep 
calletk  unto  deep.  Life  is  too  short  and  too  solemn  to  be 
dallying  with  surfaces.    I  can  only  know  how  far  my  word 

*  Preached  in  the  First  Congregational  Church,  Cincinnati,  December  4, 1859,  from 
1  Corinthians  x.  1,  2 : 

Moreover,  brethren,  I  would  not  that  yo  shonld  he  ignorant  that  all  our  fathers 
were  under  a  cloud,  and  all  passed  through  thu  sea;  and  were  all  baptized  uuto  Uoses, 
la  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea." 

30  (349) 


350  M.  D.  Conway. 

reaches  by  knowing  how  far  it  has  come ;  I  can  only  be  sure 
that  it  can  touch  any  depth  in  you,  when  it  has  come  up  from 
the  depth  of  my  own  heart.  The  equation  is  of  mathematical 
certainty.  Therefore  let  truth  be  between  us,  and  no  misun- 
derstanding. I  have  once  and  for  always  pledged  myself  to 
follow  the  leading  of  my  soul,  knowing  that  if  that  be  not 
sacred,  no  other  guide  can  be. 

I  feel,  my  brethren,  a  deep  conviction  that  our  mission  as  a 
Free  Church  is  not  so  much  to  rationalize  popular  Christi- 
anity as  to  humanize  it.  This  last  includes  the  other,  since 
the  humane  must  be  reasonable  also.  Once  let  the  broad, 
impartial  eye  of  Humanity  catuh  and  hold  in  its  spell  the 
eye  of  the  Church,  and  the  liiles  of  sect  and  party  fade. 
Theology  iriust  pass  in  giving  birth  to  Humanity,  taking  its 
place  with  Alchemy  and  Astrology,  the  embryonic  and  super- 
stitious forms  of  Chemistry  and  Astronomy.  We  would, 
therefore,  not  add  another  sect  to  the  world,  but  a  new  Christi- 
anity, which  is  also  the  most  ancient.  The  common  theology 
is  a  Christianity  with  Christ  left  out;  since  he  himself  has 
told  us  that  wherever  man  was  lefl  out,  unministered  to  in  his 
distresses,  there  he  himself  was  left  out.  But  is  my  charge 
against  the  common  theology  unwarranted  and  ill-natured  ? 
Let  us  look  to  the  religious  signs  of  the  times  for  our  answer. 
Who  has  not  heard  of  Ary  SchelFer,  the  artist  who  has  hung 
up  in  the  homes  of  two  continents,  the  scenes  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  so  full  of  fresh  and  living  beauty  ?  This  artist  drew, 
with  his  apostolic  pencil,  one  picture,  surpassing,  in  conception 
at  least,  all  the  rest  It  was  called  Ckristus  Consolator.  It 
represents  the  Son  of  Man  standing,  with  face  full  of  human 
tenderness,  with  hands  stretched  forth  in  mercy  to  the  sick, 
the  halt,  the  oppressed,  the  destitute,  who  have  gathered 
around  their  benefactor  and  consoler.  To  represent  the  idea 
that  in  him  all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth  shall  be  blest,  the 
artist  has  grouped  the  offspring  of  various  climes,  who  together 
bend  to  receive  the  benediction  of  the  Friend  of  Manr 


M.  D.  Conway. 


351 


Amongst  these,  in  his  siippHcity,  he  placed  a  Negro.  Now, 
this  painting  was  engraved,  and  soon  became  very  popular 
with  the  American  public.  I  presume  most  of  you  have  seen 
it,  as  there  are  many  copies  in  this  city.  But  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, another  engiaving  of  the  picture  met  with  an  accident, 
it  so  happened  that  a  new  prayer-book  was  needed  by  the 
Episcopal  Church  of  that  State;  and  it  was  accordingly- 
prepared  under  the  supervision  of  the  Right  Rev.  Alonzo 
Potter,  Bishop  of  that  Diocese.  It  having  been  found  a  good 
thing  for  devotion,  that  the  prayer-book  should  have  velvet 
and  gold  outside  and  pictures  inside,  the  Bishop  cast  about 
for  a  good  frontispiece  for  the  new  work,  and  he  showed  his 
taste  by  fixing  upon  the  Gkrtstus.  Consolator  of  Ary 
Scheffer.  But  that  was  not  all  he  showed ;  for,  as  I  tell  you, 
the  engraver's  plate  met  with  an  acQident,  the  picture  appear- 
ing in  the  prayer-book  with  the  figure  of  the  Negro  left  out ! 
By  this  theological  accident  it  is  made  manifest  to  us  that 
Christ  is  to  the  American  Church  the  "  consolator "  of  all 
who  need  consolation,  the  Negro  excepted ;  of  Fejees,  Hot- 
tentots, and  Hindoos,  for  whose  conversion  fortunes  are 
i)equeathed,  but  not  of  the  Slave,  who  until  he  be  righted 
should  be  the  "  Christ  and  him  crucified  "  of  every  Christian. 
Jesus  said,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  to  one  of  the  least 
of  these,  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me and  to  an 
enlightened  eye  the  Bishop's  frontispiece  had  left  out  another 
figure  also.  The  Christ  had  gone  to  find  out  the  missing 
black  man ! 

Now,  you  may  say,  that  this  is  the  sentiment  of  one  Church 
or  division  of  a  Church,  and  that  it  would  be  a  hasty  conclusion 
to  decide  that  the  American  Church  has  left  out  the  Slave  in 
its  views  of  Christ's  reign  on  earth.  But  we  have  no  need  to 
conclude  hastily ;  we  may  do  it  at  our  leisure.  Let  us  seek 
our  Christ  in  bonds  among  the  churches.  If  we  need  any 
thing  further  to  convince  us  that  the  Episcopal  Churches 
"  know  not  the  man,"  we  can  find  it  in  the  clerical  and  epis- 


352 


M.  D.  Conway. 


copal  hisses  which,  in  the  last  convention  of  that  Church  in 
New  York,  greeted  a  resolution  unfavorable  to  the  reopening 
of  the  slave  trade ;  they  would  not  even  consider  it,  especially 
as  they  were  just  putting  on  their  purple  and  fine  linen  to  go 
to  Bichmond.  And  then  what  time  or  heart  had  they  to  think 
of  negroes,  when  there  was  the  poor  sainted  Onderdonk  to 
be  wept  over  and  delivered  from  bonds ! 

Shall  we  find  him  with  the  Baptists  ?  Lately  the  great 
publishers  of  that  denomination  in  New  York,  Sheldon  &  Co., 
published  Mr.  Spurgeon's  volume  of  discourses ;  and  some- 
how, another  of  those  theological  accidents  happened.  The 
London  edition,  when  it  reappeared  in  America,  had  lost  fre- 
•  quent  and  earnest  allusions  to  the  slave !  All  the  churches, 
however,  commonly  known  as  Orthodox,  are  interested  in  the 
Tract  Society,  —  Presbyterians,  old  and  new  school ;  Metho- 
dists, Dutch  Reformed,  Baptists,  Episcopalians,  &c.  The 
tracts  published  by  this  society  are  from  various  sources, 
and  often  reproductions  of  some  of  the  finest  works  of  Wilber- 
force,  Wesley,  Hannah  More,  and  others.  Now,  a  year  or 
two  ago  it  was  discovered  that  in  very  many  of  the  old  stand- 
ard tracts,  strong  appeals  for  the  black  man  had  been  expur- 
gated. He  who  pronounced  Slavery  the  sum  of  all  villanies 
had  grown  dumb  on  the  subject ;  and  Wilberforce  was  made 
quite  at  ease  with  the  system  against  which  he  waged  a  life- 
long battle.  Now,  when  to  the  assembled  American  Church, 
each  denomination,  represented  by  its  leading  men,  this  dis- 
covery was  announced;  when  the  publishing  committee 
acknowledged  that  the  negro  had  slipped,  as  he  has  an  irre- 
sistible tendency  to  do,  out  of  their  plan  of  labor  and  their 
tracts,  do  you  think  there  was  a  thrill  of  horror  running 
through  their  hearts  ?  Did  the  Church  rise  up  in  its  strength 
and  affirm  that  Christ  had  come  to  save  the  Negro  as  well  as 
the  white  man  from  the  evils  which  alTect  and  degrade  him  ? 
Not  so;  a  smile  of  approval  overspread  the  face  of  the  Church, 
and  the  same  committee  was  reelected. 


M.  D.  Conway. 


Now,  brethren,  t  say  that  it  is  our  mission  to  engrave  the 
complete  "  Christus  Consolator  "  on  the  heart  of  America  ;  to 
restore  the  figure  of  the  fettered  Negro  back  to  the  place  from 
which  the  unchristian  Church  has  erased  ^im.  "We  must  paint 
that  picture  on  the  land,  though,  if  need  be,  our  heart's  blood 
go  for  pigment.  I  am  glad  that  literature  and  art  have  ex- 
purgated the  Negro.  It  is  the  outspeaking  of  a  fact;  he  is 
erased  there  because  he  is  erased  from  the  heart  and  con- 
science of  the  popular  church.  If  he  had  been  left  in  the 
Pennsylvania  prayer-book,  it  would  have  been  a  falsehood. 
Now  that  church,  Trinitarian,  or  Unitarian,  or  No-tarian,  is 
the  -true  and  only  true  church  in  this  country,  which  feels  it  to 
be  its  mission  to  restore  the  effaced  figure ;  to  print  the  com- 
plete frontispiece  on  every  heart  within  its  pale  of  influence ; 
to  do  away  with  a  spurious  and  expurgated  Christianity. 

And  I  am  confident  that  the  mass  of  men  know  this  well 
enough,  whether  they  are  ready  to  openly  stand  for  it  or  not. 
I  am  satisfied  that  you,  my  congregation,  should  I  with- 
hold my  tongue  from  that  event  which  claims  it  this  day, 
would  still  be  listening  to  that  event ;  for  it  is  the  nature  of 
wrong  to  press  heavily,  and  of  heroism  to  be  eloquent  and 
irrepressible ;  the  right  and  true  man,  being  dead,  yet  speak- 
eth.  In  short,  all  the  powers  of  earth  and  hell  could  not 
prevent  that  old  dead  hero  of  Virginia  from  being  heai-d  in 
our  pulpits  to-day.  Should  we  hold  our  peace,  the  very  stones 
would  cry  out. 

Is  John  Brown  a  hero  ?  It  will  one  day  be  told,  to  prove 
the  stupidity  of  this  age,  that  such  a  question  was  asked  by 
sane  men ;  that  there  were  eyes  so  dull  that  they  could  not 
see,  in  a  man  dying  for  a  religious  principle,  any  thing  more 
than  "  fanatic,"  "  madr^an,"  "  traitor." 

See  him  standing  there  on  that  great  prophetic  Monday,  in 
the  armory  of  the  United  States,  bearing,  according  to  Col. 
Lewis  Washington's  testimony,  during  the  whole  day,  that 
heirloom  of  the  family,  the  sword  which  Frederick  the  Great 
30* 


354  M.  D.  Conway. 


Bent  to  General  "Washington.  Perhaps  you  remember  the 
history  of  that  sword;  how  Frederick  the  Great,  after  a 
series  of  the  most  stupendous  wars  which  the  world  ever  saw, 
from  the  battle  of  MoUwitz,  in  1741,  to  the  peace  conceded  to 
suppliant  Austria,  in  1779,  having  fulfilled  his  mission  of 
punishing  the  most  criminal  nation  which  ever  existed,  and 
placing  all  the  nationalities  of  Europe  on  a  freer  basis,  then 
looked  over  the  ocean  and  saw  an  earnest  and  deeply  wronged 
people  contending  with  an  oppressor;  how  nearly  his  last 
public  act  was  to  extend  to  our  nation  in  that  conflict  a  help- 
ing hand,  by  employing  Hessian  troops  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  levying  the  same  toll  on  the  English  recruits  crossing  his 
dominions  as  on  "  bought  and  sold  cattle ;  "  and  how,  when  we 
conquered  our  freedom,  he  forwarded  from  Potsdam  to  Mount 
Vernon  a  Prussian  sword  of  honor,  marked  with  tliese  words : 
"  From  the  oldest  general  in  the  world  to  the  greatest."  If 
the  spirit  of  "Washington  could  still  rule  in  our  land,  I  believe 
it  would  have  presented  that  sword  to  J6hn  Brown  as  its 
rightful  inheritor,  with  the  words :  "  From  the  greatest  gen- 
eral in  the  world  to  the  purest." 

Think  not  that  tliese  are  the  words  of  enthusiasm ;  they  are 
the  words  of  truth  and  soberness.  If  in  any  degree  a  Cause 
elevates  the  deed,  if  the  altar  sanctifieth  the  gift  laid  tliereon, 
then  that  sword  made  an  ascent  and  no  descent  when  held  in 
the  hands  of  John  Brown.  Frederick  was  an  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  the  overruling  power  to  advance  the  rights  of 
man,  but  he  was  not  a  hero.  He  thought  not  of  humanity: 
when  he  entered  the  long  series  of  wars  which  brought  about 
so  much  good,  he  said,  privately,  "  Ambition,  interest,  the  de- 
sire to  make  people  talk  about  me,  carried  the  day-  and  I 
decided  to  make  war."  He  was  a  nobler  man  at  last ;  but  his 
great  deeds  were,  all  summed  up,  not  equal  in  elevation  to 
that  which  was  expiated  on  the  gallows  last  Friday.  Now  let 
us  turn  to  the  next  heir  of  the  sword  of  honor,  the  Father  of 
our  Country.   Nowhere  with  more  reverence  than  here  shall 


M.  D.  Conway.  355 


be  spoken  the  name  of  Washington !  Yet  what  was  the  cause 
for  which  he  so  bravely  fought  ?  Why,  King  George  had 
touched  the  pocket  of  New  England ;  that  was  it — a  few  shil- 
ings  tax  more  than  was  right,  brought  about  Jjie  American 
Revolution.  Also,  Washington  had  the  sympathy  of  the  two 
leading  powers  of  the  world,  Prussia  and  France,  and  the  self- 
interest  of  every  soldier  was  concerned.  The  cause  was  a 
just  cause,  but  it  was  not  a  purely  human  one.  But  this  man, 
arming  his  heart  with  the  Book  which  says,  "  Remember  those 
who  are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them,"  and  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  of  which  he  seems  to  be  one  of  the  very  few 
genuine  believers  in  our  times,  marches  on  to  a  certain  death ; 
marches  over  the  dead  bodies  of  his  sons  to  the  scaffold  — 
laying  his  all  upon  the  altar  of  the  just  God.  Do  we  admire 
Hampden,  who,  rather  than  pay  an  unjust  tax  of  twenty 
shillings,  riskf  '  his  head  that  he  might  bring  a  throned  tyrant 
to  the  block  ?  —  how  much  more  should  we  admire  the  old 
Puritan,  who,  for  a  protest  against  the  great  crime  of  our 
country,  against  five  millions  of  his  brethren,  gave  himself  and 
his  sons  to  a  cruel  death?  The  traitor  of  Charles  I.  is  our 
hero;  the  traitor  of  Governor  Wise  will  become  our  saint. 
I  am  appealing  to  you  as  men  of  heart  and  reason ;  not  as  men 
whose  opinions  are  dependent  on  the  cotton  market,  or  on 
the  platforms  of  parties.  I  set  aside  the  human  wisdom  of 
this  movement.  I  set  aside  the  question  of  the  abstract  recti- 
tude of  the  method.  The  stature  of  a  hero  dwarfs  such  con- 
siderations. It  was  his  conviction  of  duty  —  that  is  enougli. 
Can  I  not  admire  Socrates  or  Hypatia  because  I  do  not  agree 
with  the  heathenisms  for  which  they  yielded  up  their  lives  ? 
Where  heroism  comes,  where  self-devotion  comes,  where  the 
sublime  passion  for  the  right  comes,  there  God  comes ;  there 
a  will  unmeasurable  by  all  prudential  gauges  is  executed,  and 
we  may  as  well  question  the  moral  propriety  of  a  streak  of 
lightning  or  an  earthquake  as  of  that  deed. 

Thou  martyr  of  a  noble  faith !    Thou  God-maddened  old 


M.  D.  Conway. 


man  !  I  have  followed  thee  dreaming  and  waking  with  ray 
eyes.  I  have  listened  to  the  word  of  victorious  faith  which 
came  from  thy  prison ;  came  saying, "  God  has  prospered  me," 
as  thy  well-served  Master  said  in  his  darkest  hour,  Now  am 
I  glorified."  I  have  followed  thee  to  the  scaffold,  where, 
amid  the  silent  thunders  of  God,  which  were  bursting  over  the 
land,  thou  answered  "  nothing ; "  and  I  felt  that  like  our 
fathers,  we  also  were  passing  into  a  Ked  Sea,  and  have  prayed 
that  we  too  should  be  baptized  to  our  Moses,  to  our  Freedom, 
in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea  !  Who  is  so  purblind  as  to  say 
that  the  man  whose  deed  has  summed  up  a  centur;  ':•  work  — 
■who  has  sealed  with  his  blood  the  death-warrant  of  Slavery, 
has  failed  ?  A  clear  eye  may  read  in  red  letters  failure  on 
the  front  of  the  capitols  in  Vii'ginia  or  Washington ;  but  it 
will  read  on  the  gallows  of  Brown,  success.  When  such 
heroism  fails,  the  divine  power  is  bankrupt ! 

You  have  heard  the  great  story  of  Arnold  of  Winkelried, 
the  second  Leonidas  and  more :  how,  when  all  other  hope  was 
fled,  and  his  companions  shrank  before  the  swarm  of  Austrians, 
to  whom  they  were  as  nothing  in  number,  he  liad  recourse  to 
an  ally  unseen,  but  invincible,  —  namely,  a  heroic  heart.  He 
rushed  forward  to  a  sure  death.  He  gathered  in  his  side  the 
"  fatal  sheaf  of  Austiyan  spears,"  and  perished  before  them. 
He  made  every  follower  a  hero,  —  his  deed  was  stronger  than 
an  army;  his  foe  had  not  counted  on  such  opponents.  So 
does  heroism  fulfil  the  old  prophecies,  and  carrying  the  arm 
of  God  with  it,  one  chases  a  thousand,  and  two  put  ten  thou- 
sand to  flight.  We,  too,  have  seen  our  Arnold  die  before  us 
to  break  the  pass ;  and  where  there  was  one  God-fearing  and 
man-loving  heart  in  this  land,  there  are  now  a  thousand. 
John  Brown  is  not  dead ;  last  Friday  he  was  born  in  a  million 
hearts.  For  this  is  a  time  when  nothing  should  be  disguised, 
and  men  must  confront  unwelcome  but  stubborn  facts.  Our 
speech  must  be  by  the  rule  of  vera  pro  gratis  —  the  true 
instead  of  the  pleasant.  When,  by  a  sudden  touch,  as  of 
Ithuriel's  spear,  a  disguised  monster  shows  itself  in  its  real 


M.  D.  Conway. 


357 


form,  we  know  that  the  antipathy  to  it,  hitherto  disguised,  will 
become  equally  open  and  real.  When  on  one  side  of  a  river, 
free  thought,  and  free  speech,  and  free  press  prevail,  and  on  the 
other  free  presses  are  cast  into  the  river,  and  free  men  warned 
from  their  homes ;  when  martial  law  is  declared,  and  the  high- 
ways are  impressed ;  when  a  State  turns  highwayman,  and 
imprisons  the  subjects  of  other  States  without  warrant ;  when 
the  political  inquisition  is  revived  in  a  Republic  —  then,  my 
friends,  it  is  an  error  to  say  we  are  on  the  verge  of  civil  war ; 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  civil  war,  whether  much  blood  be  yet 
shed  or  not.  Last  Friday  the  wind  was  sown :  soon  or  late 
the  whirlwind  must  be  reaped. 

It  is  idle  to  talk  of  pity  for  that  slain  man ;  we  cannot  pity 
one  who  looks  down  on  us  from  such  a  height.  "We  should 
rather  approach  his  prison  as  a  palace,  his  gallows  as  a 
throne,  -~ 


We  have  now  only  to  live  and  do  a  manly  Christian-  part 
in  the  development  of  his  deed,  and  in  controlling  it,  lest  it 
pass  out  of  the  lawful  realm  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.  Its  im- 
mediate results  may  creep.  In  the  Egyptian  legend,  at  the 
end  of  every  five  hundred  years,  the  divine  bird,  the  Phoenix, 
comes  to  the  altar  of  the  Sun  and  burns  himself  to  ashes.  On 
the  first  day  after  this,  men  find  in  the  ashes  a  worm ;  on  the 
second  day,  an  unfledged  bird ;  and  on  the  third  day  after, 
the  full  grown  Phcenix  flies  away.  Out  of  the  ashes  of  our 
martyr  a  Revolution  must  come.  It  may  creep  the  first  day ; 
it  may  be  weak  the  second  day  ;  but  at  last  its  free  pinion  will 
strike  the  air,  and  it  will  rise  up  to  brood  over  this  land,  until 
the  progeny  of  Freemen  arise  to  crown  America's  destiny. 

May  we  all,  as  we  pass  under  the  cloud  and  through  the 
sea,  be  baptized  afresh  to  the  cause  of  Liberty,  Hdman- 


"For  whether  on  the  scaffold  high, 
Or  in  the  battle's  van, 
The  fittest  place  where  man  can  die 
Is  where  he  dies  for  man." 


iTY,  and  God  ! 


"  It  is  true,  as  your  minister,  [Theodore  Parker,]  faithful  and  well- 
beloved,  has  said,  all  the  great  charters  of  Humanity  have  been 
written  in  blood ;  and  therefore  he  justifies  the  shedding  of  blood.  It 
is  because  they  were  written  hi  blood  —  blood  shed  by  their  cham- 
pions— that  they  have  so  often  proved  to  be  a  dead  letter;  because 
they  have  sanctioned  the  bloody  arbitrament  of  the  sword,  the  dear 
cause  of  man's  deliverance  has  to  be  fought  for  over  and  over  again. 
Revolutions,  effected  by  force,  always  end,  sooner  or  later,  in  reestab- 
lishing the  tyranny  they  undertake  to  overthrow.  And  our  boasted 
American  Revolution  is  no  exception  to  this  truth,  but  an  impressive 
instance  of  it." 

Rev.  William  H.  Fukness. 


Imk  iiftlj. 


THE    VOICE    OF  KANSAS. 


FROM  KANSAS. 


(Correspondence  of  the  New  York  Tribune.) 

Lawken'CE,  Kansas,  December  2,  1S59. 
The  Anti-Slavery  men  of  this  county  met  here  to-day,  in  mass  meeting,  to 
enter  their  protest  against  American  Slavery,  and  to  express  their  confidence 
in  and  sympathy  with  Capt.  John  Bro\vn,  who  is  well  known  here,  and  to  take 
measures  for  the  organization  of  the  Anti-Slavery  sentiment  of  this  commu- 
nity. The  foUovring  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted :  — 

Jlesolved,  That  American  Slavery  is  an  unmitigated  evil,  a  curse,  to  both 
master  and  slave,  a  sin  against  God  and  man,  and  should  be  immediately 
abolished. 

Jlesolved,  That  wc  accord  to  the  slave  the  perfect  right  to  protect  himself 
ftom  the  tyranny  of  his  pretended  master,  and  to  use  precisely  the  means  that 
Christian  white  men  would  be  Justified  in  using  under  similar  circumstances ; 
and  that  the  time  and  mode  of  aiding  the  weaker  side  in  such  a  contest  lie 
solely  in  the  judgment  and  conscience  of  those  who  sympathize  with  the  feeble 
and  oppressed. 

****** 

Jlesolved,  That  whereas  the  character  of  our  old  comrade  in  arms,  Capt.  John 
Brown,  whose  life  to-day  is  to  be  sacrificed  to  Slavery,  has  been  cruelly  ma- 
ligned by  the  democratic  press  of  Kansas,  and  the  North  generally :  We,  there- 
fore, the  people  of  Douglas  County,  in  mass  meeting  assembled,  do  unhesita- 
tingly affirm  our  full  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  his  character,  and  the 
nobleness  of  his  motives,  believing  that  in  his  recent  conduct  he  was  not  actu- 
ated by  a  spirit  of  revenge,  but  by  the  highest  and  purest  motives. 

Jlesolved,  That  while  we  may  have  difi'ored  with  Capt.  Brown  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  his  plans  for  the  relief  of  the  slave,  we  cannot  withhold  from  him 
the  highest  honor  and  respect  due  to  one  who  endeavored  to  live  up  to  the 
golden  rule,  and  that  he  will  be  embalmed  in  our  memories  as  one  who  has 
laid  down  his  life  for  the  rights  of  man,  and  in  an  attempted  vindication  of  the 
great  idea  of  the  "  Declaration  of  Independence ; "  and  that  he  and  his  com- 
rades will  have  gone  down  to  no  inglorious  graves,  but  will  swell  the  noble 
column  of  those  who  have  fallen  in  the  great  battle  for  freedom. 

Jlesolved,  That  we  declare  our  respect  and  esteem  for  John  Brown,  in  refer- 
ence to  his  labors  in  Kansas,  knowing  him  to  have  been  a  true  and  disinterested 
friend  of  freedom  here,  and  lie  taught  tlie  Border  Kufiian  invaders  of  our  soil 
the  wholesome  lesson  that  oppressors  of  the  poor  might  be  made  to  "  bite  the 
dust,"  and  to  flee  from  the  hated  Yankees,  at  a  time  when  they  imagined  their 
foulest  dreams  on  the  eve  of  being  realized. 


1. 


Lecture  by  William  A.  Phillips* 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  of  Lawrence:  In  com- 
plying with  tlie  request  to  lecture  before  you,  I  adopt 
the  subject  announced,  in  preference  to  any  scientific  one,  be- 
lieving that  occasions  dignify  current  events  with  a  grandeur 
and  .importance  that  turns  our  attention  irresistibly  towards 
them.  It  would  be  vanity  to  affect  any  shrinking  from  SL 
popular  topic  There  are  times  when  the  lessons  of  science 
dwindle  in  importance  before  the  lessons  of  history,  and  I 
question  if  there  can  be  a  higher  duty  than  to  present  the 
startling  lesson  of  to-day,  in  the  different  aspects  in  which  it 
may  strike  us. 

Zoroaster,  in  his  Zendavesta,  has  an  allegory  which  shows 
that  those  who  travel  in  pursuit  of  knowledge  describe  a 
circle,  and  return  at  last  to  their  pristine  ignorance.  From 
another  we  learn  that  in  early  times  the  whole  human  race 
inliubited  a  small  valley,  shut  up  by  lofty  mountains,  and  that 
they  believed  the  firmament  to  be  of  adamant,  and  to  rest  on 
the  tops  of  these  mountains,  thus  shutting  out  all  else  from 
human  ken.  Until  to-day  men  continue  to  make  their  lives 
similar  profitless  circles.  Society  persists  in  inhabiting  a 
Valley  of  Ignorance,  and  conjures  up  another  "  firmament  of 
adamant"  to  shut  out  the  richest  lessons  of  history.  The 


*  Kutitk'd  "  f  lie  Ago  aod  the  Man."  DeliTcred  5Iil>er'8  ^aU,  Lawrence,  Kansas, 
Jai»,  go,  ISGO, 

31  (361) 


362 


William  A.  Phillips. 


past  we  think  we  know — of  the  present  we  are  profoundly 
ignorant.  Prone  to  expatiate  on  the  glory  of  our  age  and 
country  we  create  an  imaginary  millennium,  and  do  not  want 
to  look  beyond  it,  but  for  amusement.  How  few  j\rrive  at 
the  point  attained  by  a  learned  Chinaman,  when  he  ex- 
claimed: "  How  comes  it  that  the  Europeans,  so  remote  from 
China,  think  with  so  much  justice  and  precision.  IViey  have 
never  read  our  books  —  they  scarcely  know  even  our  letters 
—  and  yet  they  talk  and  reason  just  as  we  do." 

Who  amongst  us  does  not  secretly,  or  openly,  flatter  him- 
self that  he  lives  in  the  most  glorious  age  and  time  of  the 
world.  "VVe  scarce  would  admit  our  page  of  earth's  liistory 
to  be  part  of  the  blotted  record  of  the  human  race  for  five 
thousand  years.  Ours  we  feel  to  be  "  the  glorious  noontide 
of  the  nineteenth  century,"  even  though  we  have  not  added 
the  invention  of  a  pin-head  to  its  dicoveries,  or  given  one 
valuable  original  thought  to  the  empire  of  philosophy.  If 
our  favorite  theory  be  true,  human  nature  has  ever  been  cul- 
minating, but  has  never  reached  the  culmination  of  perfec- 
tion, since  trembling  man  looked  back  on  the  flaming  sword 
of  the  cherub  that  shut  him  out  from  the  Eden  of  his  primi- 
tive felicity. 

The  history  of  the  past  is  but  the  history  of  a  few  men. 
So  far  as  we  know,  the  masses  of  antiquity  might  have  grown 
up,  lived,  and  died,  as  unreflective  creatures  of  impulse  as 
the  beasts  that  perish.  Whole  nations  have  passed  away 
without  accomplishing  enough  to  perpetuate  their  memory. 
In  the  mazes  of  history  one  or  two  great  minds  stand  out 
like  lighthouses  in  the  gloom.  It  is  only  the  greatest  good  — 
and,  occasionally,  the  greatest  infamy  —  that  survives  the 
present.  Mediocrity  has  no  immortality.  How  much,  for 
instance,  do  we  know  of  the  Hebrew  nation  that  camped  in 
the  Valley  of  Sip.  Yet  theirs  is  supposed  to  be  a  full  record. 
Strip  out  a  few  names,  and  a  few  acts,  and  all  the  rest  is  as 
dim  fts  what  we  know  of  the  Hittites,  and  Hivites,  and  Per- 


William  A.  Phillips. 


363 


izzites,  and  Jebusites,  who  seem  to  have  existed  but  that  the 
Hebrews  might  have  the  credit  of  conquering  the  country. 
Yet  two  pictures  were  daguerreotyped  then  that  are  imperish- 
able. How  fresh  and  grand  to-day,  are  those  old  command- 
ments, thundered  from  the  Mount.  How  indelible  the  record 
of  their  idolatry,  —  how  prophetic  the  worship  of  the  Golden 
Calf. 

Antiquarians  squabble  over  the  supposed  sites  of  Nineveh 
and  Babylon.  Had  these  nations  labored  more  for  humanity 
and  less  for  ambition  and  grandeur,  they  would  have  re- 
mained fresh  and  young  while  the  bittern  flapped  its  wing 
over  the  silent  ruins  of  Birs  Nemroud.  The  little  knowledge 
the  maritime  enterprise  of  the  Phoinicians  conferred  on  the 
race,  gives  them  a  place  in  history.  The  learning  of  the 
courts  of  the  first  Ptolemy,  dignifies  what  we  know  of  Egypt, 
They  might  have  grown  corn  and  rice  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Nile,  and  eaten  it,  and  died,  and  even  the  great  Pyramids 
would  have  been  dumb.  Then  there  is  the  golden  age  of 
Athenian  glory ;  but  what  are  nine  tenths  of  those  old  Athe- 
nians to  us  but  the  unknown  units  of  her  boasted  population. 
Her  freedom  and  her  power  lie  buried  beneath  the  rubbish 
of  twenty  centuries.  The  language,  immortalized  by  Zeno- 
phon,  and  Socrates,  and  Plato,  has  become  a  dead  jargon, 
vainly  peddled  by  pedants,  for  their  immortal  utterances  have 
found  voices  in  living  tongues,  and  may  not  be  wrapped  in 
the  mummy  casements  that  could  not  contain  them.  Exempt 
from  decay  is  the  spirit  for  human  Freedom  she  breathed 
upon  the  race.  The  Temple  of  Neptune,  and  the  Parthenon, 
have  crumbled  to  the  dust,  but  the  thoughts  and  aspirations 
she  gave  humanity  are  imperishable. 

And  thus  we  learn,  as  we  try  to  unravel  the  mazes  of  his- 
tory, that  the  gifts  made  to  humanity  and  philosophy  are,  of 
all  human  creations,  alone  eternal.  It  does  not  matter,  though 
the  age  in  wliich  they  were  offered  rejected  them.  Old  Gal- 
ileo invented  the  telescope,  and.  turned  this  new  Isver  into  the 


3^4 


William  A.  Phillips. 


mysteries  of  space.  The  pious  authorities  of  his  day  cast 
him  into  a  dungeon  for  saying  the  worid  went  round  the  sun. 
As  the  door  of  that  dungeon  swung  against  him  he  exclaimed, 
"  It  goes  round  yet ! "  —  and  it  did.  Copernicus,  who  was 
before  him,  scarce  dared  promulgate  his  theory  of  the  uni- 
verse, in  an  age  immortalized  by  his  name.  One  of  the  most 
philosophical  of  early  chemists  beguiled  a  long  imprisonment 
with  his  science;  and  the  spy  of  a  learned  monarch,  who 
watched  the  philosopher  in  prison,  reported  to  his  master, 
that,  "  He  hath  got  so  many  essences  and  spirits  of  things, 
that  the  only  thing  that  seems  to  be  lacking  is  the  hSpirit  of 
God."  The  inventor  of  the  printing  press  was  charged  with  a 
league  with  the  deviL  The  inventor  of  logarithms  was  sus- 
pected of  witchcraft,  -^sop  Avas  a  slave.  Seneca,  Socrates, 
and  many  other  learned  ancients  Avere  put  to  death  by  their 
contemporaries.  Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer,  and  a  host  of 
others,  were  burned  at  the  stake  for  heresies,  which  are  now 
the  great  axioms  of  religious  truth.  As  John  Hampden  rode 
from  the  field  of  battle  mortally  wounded,  he  did  not  go  to 
the  obscurity  of  the  builders  of  the  pyramids.  He  will  live 
and  speak  while  there  is  a  protest  against  unjust  taxation,  and 
the  doctruie  survives  that  taxation  and  representation  must  go 
hand  in  hand.  Algernon  Sydney  did  not  perish  on  the  scaffold. 
The  cruel  and  tyrannical  Stuarts  could  put  the  coldness  of 
death  on  the  lips  that  declared,  "governments  were  of  the 
people,  and  for  the  people," — that  they  derived  their  just 
powers  from  the  "  consent  of  the  governed  ; "  but  they  could 
not,  in  their  puny  littleness,  stifle  the  immortal  utterances.  It 
was  to  the  scaffold  of  Algernon  Sydney,  Republican  Liberty 
owes  the  impressive  lesson  that,  "  whenever  the  people  find 
their  governments  evil  they  have  a  nght  to  change  them ; " 
that  "magistrates  owe  an  account  to  those  for  whom  they 
rule ; "  that  "  governments  are  for  the  people  —  not  people  for 
the  government."  Was  it  not  worth  while  to  pour  out  one's 
life  blood  to  seal  with  it  such  a  heritage  to  the  race. 


William  A.  Phillips. 


I  have  thus  hastily  glanced  over  these  landmarks  of  his- 
tory—  these  lighthouses  of  the  ages  —  to  show  that  History 
is  but  the  history  of  a  few,  —  that  a  few  men  stamp  their 
characters  on  the  age  in  which  they  live,  —  that  the  judg- 
ments of  the  present  are  no  indication  of  merit,  —  that  moral 
legacies  are  alone  immortal,  and  goodness  only  can  bear  the 
scrutiny  of  time. 

A  w^ord  about  the  antiquities  of  this  country.  We  have 
the  most  indubitable  evidence  that  great  portions  of  this  con- 
tinent were  densely  populated,  at  a  remote  day,  by  people 
far  advanced  in  the  arts  and  sciences.  What  has  become  of 
them  ?  Why  did  they  perish  without  leaving  an  intelligible 
record  ?  Their  ruins  are  widely  scattered  over  the  country, 
but  the  most  extensive  yet  discovered  are  found  at  Uxraal 
and  Palenque,  in  the  south-east  coast  of  Mexico.  At  Uxmal, 
are  immense  pyramids,  coated  with  stone,  and  quadrangular 
stone  edifices  and  terraces.  The  greatest  of  these  pyramids 
is  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  high,  and  its  summit  supports  a 
temple.  On  one  of  the  facades  of  this  temple  are  four  human 
figures  cut  in  stone,  with  great  elegance  and  accuracy.  At  Pa- 
lenque are  immense  ruins.  One  temple,  that  of  Cepan,  was 
six  hundred  and  fifty  by  five  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  There 
are  the  magnificent  remains  of  a  royal  palace,  and  of  an  im- 
mense city,  which  antiquarian  explorers  compute  to  have 
been  sixty  miles  in  circumference,  and  to  have  contained  tliree 
millions  of  souls.  The  style  of  these  ruins  has  a  little  of  the 
Gothic  and  ICgyptian,  but  there  is  sufficient  evidence  of  a 
distinct  architecture  from  all  the  recognized  styles  of  the 
world.  Rich  carvings  and  numerous  hieroglyphics  show  the 
high  culture  of  art,  and  the  progress  of  thought ;  but  these 
hieroglyphics  have  lost  all  their  cunning,  and  no  longer  speak 
to  the  eye,  or  the  heart  of  living  man.  Centuries  must  have 
elapsed  —  ages  in  which  progress  must  have  struggled  with 
conservatism,  ere  such  an  advanced  state  of  things  could 
have  existed.  And  now  the  ^evidence  of  the  great  forests 
31* 


366 


Will&:  •  A.  Phillips. 


growing  above  them  goes  to  prove  that  nearly  two  centuries 
must  have  elapsed  since  they  crumbled  to  dust,  or  were  left 
to  desolation.  Yet  all  this  rotten  grandeur  has  left  no  living 
voice  or  moral  legacy  to  the  race.  How  impressive  the 
lesson  to  us  who  are  hewing  out  a  great  young  empire  from 
the  prairies  and  forests  of  the  same  continent. 

Amongst  the  boasted  elements  of  our  "  great  Age,"  we  fre- 
quently hear  of  "the  race,"  "the  conquering  Anglo-Saxon 
race  !  "  Two  centuries  ago  there  was  not  quite  three  millions 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  on  earth.  Sixty-eight  years  ago 
there  was  only  seventeen  millions.  Thirty-five  years  ago  it 
had  swelled  to  thirty-four  millions.  In  1850  it  bad  increased 
to  fifty-six  millions.  When  the  next  census  of  Great  Britain, 
and  the  next  year's  census  of  this  country  (the  two  great 
branches  of  the  race)  are  taken,  they  will  undoubtedly  ex- 
hibit a  joint  population  of  seventy  millions,  perhaps  more. 
What  an  amazing  growth  of  power  in  two  centuries.  And 
now  there  is  not  a  sea  but  is  whitened  by  the  commerce  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  At  every  point  her  language,  her 
customs,  her  enterprise,  are  the  aggressors,  and  push  before 
them  all  obstacles.  Talk  of  the  "  necessity  of  absorbing  the 
smaller  races."  Who  can  limit  the  power,  or  guarantee  the 
strength,  of  any  portion  of  the  human  family  ?  Can  we  won- 
der that  from  the  family  of  Jacob  sprang,  in  a  few  centuries, 
a  race  numerous  as  the  sands  of  the  sea  shore ;  which  rose  to 
greatness  while  other  nations  crumbled.  Inspired  with  the 
grand  ideas  and  purpose  of  its  religion,  it  pressed  irresistibly 
onwards  until  luxury,  and  selfishness,  and  idolatry,  weakened 
its  great  purpose,  when  it  dwindled  away  until  its  few  scat- 
tered fragments  were  lost,  in  the  stronger  and  deeper  waves 
of  humanity,  that  in  turn  aspired  to  accomplish  moral  and 
intellectual  triumphs. 

Nearly  all  the  great  gems  of  civilization  have  been  bud- 
ded on  foreign  clime  and  stock.  For  the  great  civilization 
of  the  Hebrews,  the  Canaanites  were  cast  out  and  subdi5ed. 


William  A.  Phillips. 


The  Greece  of  art  and  refinement  came  from  a  foreign  graft 
on  a  stunted  stock.  It  needs  not  the  poetical  story  of  ^neas 
to  tell  us  of  the  nucleus  round  which  clustered  the  Roman 
Empire.  It  was  the  same  with  Carthage.  The  ancient 
Briton  was  first  conquered  by  the  Roman,  and  then  the  coun- 
try was  successively  overrun  with  the  Dane,  the  Saxon,  and 
the  Norman.  Although  the  Saxon  p'-edominated,  it  was  from 
the  mingled  elements  of  all  these  that  sprang  the  germ  of  the 
modern  civilized  Anglo-Saxon.  The  civilization  of  this 
country  is  the  latest  striking  illustration  of  the  fact.  What 
has  become  of  the  Spaniard  ?  At  the  time  of  the  discovery 
of  America,  Spain  was  the  only  nation  in  Europe  that  had  a 
representative  body  of  law  makers  worthy  of  the  name.  Since 
that  time  it  has  lost  its  purpose  of  working  for  humanity,  and 
has  dwindled  away,  while  the  footsteps  of  the  progressive 
Anglo  Saxon  have  been  steadily  advancing  on  its  decadence 
.and  ruin. 

Whence  came  the  nerve  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  power  ?  We 
have  seen  that  it  has  sprung  to  its  great  strength  within  two 
centuries.  What  seeds  were  sown  just  before  these  two  cen- 
turies began  ?  You  have  heard  of  the  Reformation.  You 
have  heard  of  Protestantism.  Yes,  that  word  protest,  is 
embedded  as  the  backbone  of  the  civilized  Anglo-Saxon.  It 
does  not  refer  merely  to  religion,  much  less  to  any  one 
church.  It  was  the  protest  of  humanity  against  despotism. 
A  protest  against  bigotry,  and  wrong,  and  slaveiy,  and  dark- 
ness, and  conservatism,  and  moth-eaten  dignities,  and  dust- 
covered  corruption,  and  in  favor  of  the  man,  —  his  progress, 
his  duty,  and  his  salvation.  Old  dignities  grew  on  the  crushed 
sinews  of  the  man.  The  "divine  right"  of  the  powerful  to 
trample  on  the  weak,  found  then,  as  it  once  more  does  now, 
a  priesthood  corrupt  enough  to  lend  it  the  sanction  of  what 
they  call  Religion.  The  doctrine  was,  in  the  words  of 
McKay, — 


368  William  A.  Phillips. 

V  Man  to  misery  is  born ;  — 
Bom  to  drudge,  to  sweat,  to  suffer — 
Born  to  labor  and  to  pray."  ^ 

Prior  to  the  Keformation  there  were  serfs  in  England.  I 
know  it  is  customary  to  charge  the  Romish  church  of  tliat 
time  with  all  existing  evils.  I  have  no  desire  to  commit 
such  injustice.  I  neither  wish  to  inculpate  or  exculpate 
them.  The  fact  was,  the  protest  began  against  Romish 
usurpation,  and  finished  by  hurling  itself  against  all  usurpa- 
tion. This  was  the  legitimate  fruit  of  a  Christianity  strug- 
gling into  Freedom  and  Light. 

It  is  fashionable,  I  believe,  to  speak  contemptuously  of  the 
dark  or  middle  ages.  These  dark  ages  carried  in  their  bosoms 
the  seeds  of  something  better  than  themselves.  Tiiey  gave 
us  the  printing  press,  the  .mariner's  compass,  the  telescope, 
gunpowder,  the  first  fruits  of  chemistry,  experimental  philos- 
ophy ;  and  then  sprang  from  them  Protestantism  and  consti- 
tutional governments.  The  mingled  Anglo-Saxon  race  was 
the  richest  soil  into  which  the  Protest  fell.  It  ripened  into  a 
great  purpose,  and  inspired  with  it  the  race  sprang  forward  to 
greatness  and  power. 

Then  came  the  Puritanic  era.  It  was  the  highest  type, 
because  it  was  religion  and  progress  wedded  together.  Oliver 
Cromwell  was  its  first  representative.  The  ablest  ruler 
England  ever  had,  —  he  sang  psalms,  and  shot  his  enemies, 
—  "  trusted  in  God,  and  kept  his  powder  dry." 

When  Cromwell  died,  and  English  Puritanism  went  under 
a  cloud,  many  of  its  leading  spirits  sought  refuge  in  the  new 
world.  You  remember  how  the  ancient  Hebrews  wandered 
on  to  a  great  destiny,  with  the  ark  of  the  covenant  in  their 
midst.  These  Puritans  came  with  the  great  piiotkst  em- 
bedded in  their  bones.  When  the  Pilgrims  stood  on  Plym- 
outh Rock  and  looked  out  through  the  drifting  snow  to  the 
great  wilderness  —  now  a  great  empire  —  they  had  as  dim  an 
idea  of  that  wilderness  as  they  had  of  the  designs  of  an  over- 


William  A.  Phillips. 


3^ 


ruling  Providence  that  had  been  preparing  them  as  weapons 
for  a  great  purpose. 

Then  came  the  Revolution.  It  was  inevitable.  It  was 
part  of  the  Protest.  It  was  no  slight  step  for  a  young  nation, 
still  in  the  swaddling-bands  of  infancy,  to  imbody,  and  am- 
plify, and  perfect  the  Republicanism  of  Hampden  and  Alger- 
non Sydney.  It  was  still  more  —  it  was  nobler  and  higher, 
— it  showed  that  the  leaven  of  Liberty  will  work,  when 
its  youthful  voice  uttered  to  the  civilized  world,  "  We  hold 
these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  God  created  all  men 
equal,"  with  the  "  inalienable  right "  to  "  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  It  did  not  matter  how  many  cavilled 
at  the  idea,  or  how  few  comprehended  it.  It  was  not  fatal  to 
the  Declaration  that  the  government  founded  on  it  should  not 
come  fully  up  to  its  own  doctrine.  Why,  it  was  an  idea  that 
the  most  vitally  active  and  youthful  nation  could  spend  centu- 
ries in  realizing.  There  was  life  enough  in  it  to  keep  a 
nation  growing  for  five  hundred  years.  That  is,  if  the  idea 
grew,  the  nation  would  grow.  The  individual  who  has  no 
fixed  purpose  will  come  to  nought;  so  is  it  with  nations. 
"  Up,  or  down  ?  choose  ye,"  says  fate,  "  but  keep  moving." 

The  future  of  the  young  Republic  began  to  wear  its  grand 
aspect.  All  the  earnest,  progressive,  Protestant  thinkers 
turned  to  it  in  admiration.  The  prayers  of  those  who  had  a 
belter  hope  for  humanity  went  up  for  its  freedom  of  opinion 
and  purpose  revealed  in  the  prospect. 

Every  species  of  religion  and  irreligion  began  to  flourish. 
The  religious  protest  did  not  confine  itself  to  Catholicism. 
Presbyterianism  protested  against  Episcopacy.  Arminian- 
ism  protested  against  Calvinism.  Societies  protested  against 
Church  Judicatories  and  Synods  —  Conveniions  against  So- 
cieties. Idealists  scoffed  at  Formalists,  and  the  individual 
thinker  protested  against  them  all.  The  doctrine  was,  that 
religious  sentiment  should  be  perfectly  free.  Yet,  for  all  that, 
the  America  of  Progress  was  and  is  essentially  a  Christian 


370 


William  A.  Phillips. 


nation.  Its  Christianity  constitutes  the  locks  of  the  young 
Samson.  The  elder  Adams,  in  his  Tripolitan  treaty,  ven- 
tured to  recommend  us  by  the  assertion  that  the  government 
of  the  United  States  was  in  no  sense  founded  on  the  "  Chris- 
tian religion  ;"  but  his  gratuitous  assertion  was  nqt  true. 
Christ's  "  sum  of  the  whole  commandments "  was  the  corner 
stone  of  the  American  Kepublic.  It  is  true  we  have  within 
our  borders  Mormonism,  and  Mahometanism,  and  even  Bud- 
dhism, with  regular  (and  very  irregular)  paganism.  But 
these  are  mere  barnacles  sticking  on  the  great  body  politic. 
They  are  no  part  of  American  civili2:ation.  The  former  is 
an  ulcer  on  the  body  politic,  and  the  latter  merely  serve  to 
keep  the  Chinese  of  California,  and  other  Orientals  —  not  to 
mention  the  Indians  —  a  distinct  people.  I  do  not  deem  it 
necessary  to  say  that  any  violent  step  to  put  down  either  of 
these  heathenisms  would  only  be  a  violence  to  our  own  Chris- 
tianity. But  I  will  say,  that  if  we  are  ever  to  be  a  great  nation 
hereafter,  the  protesting,  puritanic  Christianity  of  progress 
must  keep  the  lead,  and  infuse  its  life-blood  through  every 
vein  of  the  nation.  This  true  religious  element  is  its  life. 
It  will  naturally  rise  over  all  paganisms  because  it  is  better. 
But  there  is  one  idolatry  that  makes  it  tremble  already — ■ 
the  Moloch  of  selfishness.  Men  again  dance  round  the 
Golden  Calf. 

Bat,  as  I  have  remarked,  we  have  a  sort  of  chaos  of  free 
thinking.  The  conservative  Catholic  says  it  is  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  Protestantism.  The  truth  is,  that  opinions,  like 
society,  are  in  a  transition  state.  The  fountains  of  the  great 
deep  of  thought  have  been  broken  up,  (so  long  sealed  over  by 
despotisms,)  and  the  flood  is  on  the  earth ;  the  storms  try  to 
drive  it  about,  but  the  currents  seek  their  legitimate  channels. 
Man,  like  a  prisoner  long  confined  to  a  dark  dungeon,  on 
being  ushered  into  the  glorious  light  of  day,  gambuls  and 
cuts  fantastic  figures  in  the  first  exultation  of  his  liberty. 
Do  not  fear  all  this  wilderness  of  opinion.    Do  not  fear  this 


William  A.  Phillips. 


37J 


Atheism.  Why,  we  see  that  the  man  who  scoffs  at  revela™ 
tion,  in  the  next  moment  embraces  spirit  rapping,  and  has 
unshaken  confidence  in  the  inspiration  of  a  mahogany  table. 
He  who  will  not  believe  in  a.revealed  God,  is  fain  to  put  up 
with  an  unknown  one  —  an  idol  of  his  own  manufacture. 
Ah,  the  religious  instinct  lives  and  breathes  forever.  It  may 
be  perverted  —  it  cannot  be  slain.  Let  us  not  forget  that  it 
is  the  grand  purpose  of  our  type  of  humanity  to  drive  these 
clouds  aside,  —  to  work  constantly  and  earnestly  for  that  true 
religion  of  the  heart,  without  which  all  life  is  a  mockery. 
Christianity  has  given  us  a  social  system  based  on  the  sum  of 
all  the  commsmdments.  "  Whatever  ye  would  that  men 
should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto  them."  The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  sets  forth  a  political  preachment  of  the 
same  doctrine.  This  is  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  that  has 
blessed  us  with  our  great  civilization.  The  question  is.  Shall 
we  continue  to  believe  it  ?  Is  progressive  humanity  capable 
of  indefinite  realization.  Why,  nations  crumble  and  decay 
for  want  of  a  purpose.  We  have  one ;  shall  we  throw  it 
away  ?  Will  the  prophets  of  this  creed  be  the  prophets  of 
the  age  ?  Will  the  nation  that  has  grown  great  in  its  youth 
and  its  poverty,  in  the  years  of  its  power  and  luxury,  throw 
this  sacred  Ark  of  the  Covenant  before  the  shrine  of  Moloch  ? 

What  an  age  of  wealth  and  luxury  ours  has  become  !  The 
mechanic  arts  bewilder  us.  We  are  aghast  at  progress.  A 
perfect  hail  storm  of  improvements  have  pelted  poor  conser- 
vatism. There  is  machinery  for,  and  a  patent  way  of  doing 
every  thing,  from  a  calculating  machine  to  a  contrivance  for 
papering  pins.  In  the  electric  telegraph  Jove  seems  to  have 
handed  his  thundei'bolts  as  peaceful  messengers  to  man.  It 
used  to  be  proverbial  that  "  a  shadow  had  no  substance ; "  but 
the  camera  of  the  daguerrian  catches  up  the  momentary 
shadow,  and  chains  it  as  a  real  substance  forever.  Are  we 
sure  that  even  thought  may  not  be  caught  up,  as  it  floats 
from  the  brain  of  the  dreamer  unuttered,  and,  thus  arrested, 


372 


William  A.  Phillips. 


be  exposed  through  the  medium  of  Anglo-Saxon,  ere  it  seeks 
through  the  blue  ether  for  the  vernacuhir  of  Paradise  'i  The 
mind  is  bewildered  at  the  treasures  of  invention  poured  into 
the  human  lap.  Encyclopedias,  giving  a  brief  outline  of  all 
the  great  world  of  fact,  and  science,  and  art,  have  become  too 
voluminous  to  read. 

And  yet  there  is  a  certain  shallowness  in  all  this  wide 
ocean.  A  tendency  to  flimsiness  and  sophistication.  Paste 
and  glass  crowd  diamonds  and  emeralds  out  of  the  market. 
There  are  counterfeits  in  every  thing,  —  in  the  arts,  in  poli- 
tics, in  morals.  The  Puritanism  that  kings  could  not  conquer 
Moloch  is  trying  to  crush.  Money,  money  is  the  master 
spirit  of  the  world.  How  many  are  there  who  have  not 
bowed  the  knee  to  this  arch  Dagon  of  civilization.  Genius, 
labor,  politics,  beauty,  religion,  are  in  the  market,  and  if 
virtue  may  not  be  bought  with  money,  it  is  loo  often  sold 
for  it. 

Yet  how  hideous  is  poverty.  Talk  as  they  will  of  repub- 
licanism and  equality,  most  men  hate  poverty  as  they  do  the 
itch.  Choose  two  men  for  the  worship  of  the  masses.  Let 
one  b'j  ricli,  comely,  gorgeous  in  apparel  —  well-finislied  as  a 
tailor,  a  barber,  and  a  perfumer  can  make  him.  Let  him  be 
able  to  utter  the  fashionable  trifles  of  the  moment,  —  he  may 
be  destitute  of  brain,  with  a  homojopathic  dose  of  soul.  Then 
take  a  ragged,  poverty-stricken  man,  Avith  bronzed  features, 
and  hard  hand.  He  may  have  unshaken  integrity,  and  have 
an  intelligent  mind.  Place  these  men  before  the  {jeople,  and 
say,  "  Choose  ye ! "  and  like  the  bewitched  Hebrews  they 
bow  down  to  the  golden  calf. 

Has  it  not  become  notorious,  in  many  parts  of  our  country, 
that  honest  men  are  scarcely  ever  chosen  to  fill  high  places  ? 
Political  deception  has  been  refined  into  a  system,  and  ele- 
vated to  the  rank  of  a  virtue.  Men  call  it  diplomacy.  A 
man  who  shows  that  he  is  guided  by  general  principles  of 
right  and  wrong  is  scouted  as  "impracticable,"  and  adjudged  a 


William  A.  Phillips. 


373 


"fanatic,"  without  further  evidence.  Selfishness  has  usurped 
the  powers  of  our  government.  It  controls  public  sentiment, 
and  owns  our  halls  of  legislation. 

Our  political  parties,  in  making  their  platforms,  strive  not 
to  make  them  right  before  God,  but  unobjectionable  to  the 
most  vicious  man  tliat  can  be  found  in  the  party.  The  more 
of  selfish  interest,  and  the  less  of  humanitarian  principle  they 
have  in  them,  the  better.  It  is  told  of  the  Chinese  that  they 
submit  to  the  misrule  and  rapacity  of  the  mandarins,  each 
man  hoping  to  be  a  mandarin  one  day  himself,  when  his  time 
will  come.  And  so  we  have  become  a  nation  of  oifice- 
seekers.  When  obtained,  men  do  not  square  their  office  by 
their  principles,  but  their  principles  by  their  office.  Nearly 
all  of  our  public  men  are  of  the  shark,  hyena,  and  buzzard 
order.  Their  doctrine  is,  "eat  —  or  be  eaten."  They  prey 
first  on  each  other,  and  then  on  tiie  people.  I  remember 
a  story  of  a  certain  prime  minister  of  Charles  II.'s  time, 
who,  on  a  certain  occasion,  in  a  fit  of  resentment  re- 
signed his  posts  and  retired  to  the  country.  Not  quite 
weaned  from  ambition,  he  sent  his  servant  to  the  capital  to 
see  how  the  courtiers  would  take  his  resignation.  On  the 
messenger's  return,  he  impatiently  asked  him  if  there  was  any 
commotion  at  court. 

"  Ay,  marry,  sir,  —  a  great  commotion." 

"  Ah,  indeed,  —  I  knew  my  friends  would  make  a  bustle^ 
All  petitioning  the  king  for  my  restoration,  I  presume  ?  " 

"No,  sir,  —  they  are  all  petitioning  him  for  your  place." 

The  striking  resemblance  between  the  courts  of  Charles  II. 
and  James  Buchanan  will  be  at  once  seen.  There  is  one 
difference  worthy  of  note,  however,  —  the  latter  politicians 
never  carry  their  resentments  quite  so  far.  It  is  specially  so 
with  the  worst  of  our  public  men,  —  they  rarely  die,  during 
their  term  of  office,  and  never  resign.  We  hear  a  great  deal 
about  the  Constitution.  Some  fallaciously  suppose  that  the 
country  is  ruled  under  it ;  it  is  only  by  definitions  of  the 
Constitution. 

32 


374 


William  A.  Phillips, 


But  the  worst  lacking  of  our  public  men  of  the  present 
day  is  moral  courage.  Men  do  not  hesitate  to  apologize  for 
the  best  instincts  of  their  own  nature.  Instead  of  their  con- 
sciences being  ashamed  of  them,  they  are  really  ashamed  of 
their  own  consciences.  Thus,  for  instance,  if  they  happen  to 
express  an  opinion  adverse  to  Slavery,  they  make  haste  to 
qualify  it  by  adding,  that  "  they  hate  the  negro,"  or  that  they 
are  opposed  to  it  merely  because  it  will  not  pay.  They 
would  not  be  suspected  of  a  genuine  emotion,  for  the  world. 
They  freely  vote  Humanity  to  be  a  humbug ;  and  theirs  un- 
questionably is  so. 

It  is  this  selfishness,  corruption,  cowardice,  religious  and 
political  atheism,  that  threatens  to  demolish  our  civilization 
and  nation ;  —  to  burn  the  ark  of  the  covenant.  But  where 
is  the  enemy  in  our  midst  to  use  these  weapons  ?  Corrup- 
tion has  not  quite  reached  such  a  pitch  as  to  destroy  of  itself. 
Ah,  we  have  a  sleepless,  antagonistic  power  within  our  bor- 
ders. When  the  American  republic  was  founded,  there  was 
the  slave  system.  The  spirit  that  brought  the  Revolution  had 
already  begun  to  root  it  out.  Republican  Liberty  was,  in  its 
every  breath,  a  living  caveat  against  it.  There  is,  and  must 
be,  an '*  irrepressible  conflict"  between  them.  But  Republi- 
can Liberty  was  established,  and  the  patriots  of  that  day 
looked  with  hope  for  the  extinction  of  Slavery.  Many  of 
the  original  States  shook  it  ofl^.  Its  utter  extinction  was  the 
natural  work  of  the  great  Protest  —  the  power  of  the  age. 
For  a  while,  and  while  this  Avas  the  leading  idea,  every 
thing  went  well.  But  a  change  came  over  the  Southern 
dream.*  Millions  of  cotton  bags  startled  avarice.  When 
Virginian  soil  was  cursed  for  Slavery's  sake,  she  betook  her- 
self to  raising  slock,  and  exported  annually  millions  of  dollars* 
worth  of  h'iT  sons  and  daughters.  Luxuries,  begotten  by  such 
traffic,  are^  not  apt  to  lead  the  possessor  to  clearer  ideas  of 
justice  and  right. 

Th©  difficulty  first  showed  itself  by  considering  the  subject 


William  A.  Phillips. 


375 


a  "vexed  question" — one  that  admitted  of  no  adjustment. 
I  can  remember  very  well,  and  I  was  mostly  amongst  South- 
ern men  when  I  first  began  to  think,  that  no  one  could  be 
found  who  had  the  hardihood  to  say  that  Slavery  was  right. 
Then  flourished  that  venerable,  fossil  school  of  politicians 
who  admitted  that  Slavery  was  wrong,  — but,  also,  admitted, 
tliat  nothing  could  be  done  for  it.  A  few  nice  gentlemen 
tickled  their  consciences  by  subscribing  a  small  modicum  of 
an  unpaid-for  crop  of  cotton,  or  half  a  per  cent,  of  tlie  price 
of  Dinah,  or  Pompey,  to  some  colonization  society,  and  taking 
the  "  Liberia  Advocate."  A  good  deal  of  very  useless  phi- 
lanthropy found  vent  in  that  way,  but  that  delusion  never  had 
any  vitality  in  it,  for  its  own  high  priests  did  not  believe  in  it 
themselves.  But  all  these  nice  old  gentlemen  of  the  South 
have  gone  down.  What  has  become  of  them  ?  Where  are 
the  Bells,  and  the  Thompsons,  and  the  Bentons,  and  the 
Mangums,  that  used  to  make  the  Southern  wing  of  the  United 
States  Senate.  I  will  tell  you,  my  friends.  They  had  said, 
they  knew  of  no  solution  of  this  question,  and  a  new  tribe 
has  arisen  which  say  they  hioio  of  one.  Ah,  remembei',  we 
can't  stand  still  in  God's  world.  During  the  French  Revolu- 
tion the  eloquent  and  talented  Girondins  got  the  power  as  the 
flood  reached  its  tide.  But  they  vacillated.  They  were 
afraid  of  the  despotism  of  a  Monarchy,  and  on  the  other  hand 
they  trembled  for  the  licentiousness  of  a  Democracy.  They 
wavered,  and  the  Mountain  party  arose  and  blotted  them  out 
in  blood. 

And  now  we  have  a  dominant  power  in  our  government 
wliicli  says  Slavery  is  right  —  and  shall  be  extended  and 
perpetuated.  They  have  seized  the  corrupt  material  we  have 
allowed  to  grow  at  the  North,  and  they  use  it  for  their  pur- 
poses. The  empire  of  Moloch  and  the  empire  of  Despotism 
are  identical,  and  they  have  made  a  fearful  league  against  our 
old  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 

Let  no  one  impiously  upbraid  God  for  our  sins.  Ever 


376 


William  A.  Phillips. 


since  the  glorious  truths  of  human  freedom  were  sown  as  thd 
seeds  of  our  nation,  he  has  blessed  those  who  have  warred 
with  and  for  them.  Look  at  the  statistics  of  the  South.  In 
spite  of  all  the  advantage  lent  to  it  by  our  vigorous  young 
Kepublican  government,  that  section  of  our  common  count'y 
has  been  seared  with  the  blight  of  a  curse.  "Where  are  her 
railroads,  her  commerce,  her  literature  ?  One  remove  above 
Mexican  dilapidation,  and  that  is  all.  Take  two  of  the  first 
States  of  each  section  for  example.  At  the  Revolution,  Vii*- 
ginia  had  twice  the  population  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
and  thrice  her  wealth.  New  York  has  now  six  times  the 
population  of  Virginia,  and  New  York  city  alone  might  buy 
the  whole  State,  and  have  enough  left  to  invest  in  Arkansas. 
The  city  of  Boston  could  buy  the  haughty,  and  boastedly 
rich  State  of  South  Carolina.  Let  us  take  the  evidence  of 
her  own  statesman.  Mr.  Faulkner  of  Virginia  —  now  a  fire- 
eating  Slavery  extensionist  —  on  the  20th  of  January,  1832, 
made  a  speech  in  the  House  of  Delegates,  of  the  State  of 
Virginia,  on  the  subject.  The  following,  he  doubtless  thought 
good  then.    I  think  it  good  now  :  — 

Sir,  if  there  be  one  who  concurs  with  that  gentleman  as  to  the  harm- 
less character  of  this  institution,  let  mc  request  him  to  compare  the  condition 
of  the  slaveholding  portion  of  this  Commonwealth — barren,  desolate,  and 
seared,  as  it  tccre,  by  the  avengirig  hand  of  Heaven,  with,  the  description 
which  we  have  of  this  country  from  those  who  first  broke  its  virgin  soil. 
To  what  is  this  charge  ascriba'ble  ?  Alone  to  the  withering  and  blasting 
effects  of  Slavery, 

"  To  that  vice  in  the  organization  of  society,  by  which  one  half  of  its  in- 
habitants are  arrayed  in  interest  and  feeling  against  the  other  half — to 
that  unfortunate  state  of  society  in  which  freemen  regard  labor  as  disgrace- 
ful, and  slaves  shrink  from  it  as  a  burden  tyran"nically  imposed  upon  them. 

"  In  the  language  of  the  wise  and  patriotic  Jefferson,  '  You  must  ap- 
proach it  —  you  must  bear  it — you  must  adopt  some  plan  of  emancipation, 
or  worse  will  follow.' 

"  Slavery,  it  is  admitted,  is  nn  evil.  It  is  an  institution  which  presses 
heavily  against  the  best  interests  of  the  State.  It  banishes  free  white  labor 
—  it  exterminates  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the  manufacturer.  It  deprives 
them  of  occupation.  It  deprives  them  of  bread.  It  converts  the  energy  of 
a  community  into  indolence,  its  power  into  imbecility,  its  efficiency  into 


William  A.  Phillips. 


377 


weakness.  Sir,  being  thus  injurious,  have  we  not  a  right  to  demand  its 
extenuination  ?  Shall  society  suffer  that  the  slaveholder  may  continue  to 
gather  his  crop  of  human  flesh  ?  » 

"  Sir,  so  great  and  overshadowing  are  the  evils  of  Slavery  —  so  sensibly 
are  they  felt  by  those  who  have  traced  the  causes  of  our  national  decline  — 
so  perceptible  is  the  poisonous  operation  of  its  principles  in  the  varied  and 
diversified  interests  of  this  Commonwealth,  that  all  whose  niinds  are  not 
warped  by  prejudice  or  interest,  must  admit  that  the  disease  has  now 
assumed  that  mortal  tendency  as  to  justify  the  application  of  any  remedy 
which,  under  the  great  law  of  the  State  necessity,  we  might  consider 
advisable." 

No  longer  do  such  voices  from  Southern  men  fall  on  the 
ears  of  the  nation.  Slavery  in  the  South  has  corrupted  its 
morals,  degraded  its  religion,  and  destroyed  its  independence. 
How  insane  to  think  that  a  nation  can  exist,  or  flourish,  on 
the  basis  of  a  great  crime  I  Yet  they,  in  their  mad  frenzy, 
say  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  false.  Freedom  u 
failure,  and  Slavery  better  than  the  Constitution  or  the 
Union.  Conservatism  timidly  remonstrates,  and  weakly  tries 
to  dissuade  crime  from  its  purposes.  Political  cowards,  who 
do  not  see  beyond  their  noses,  think  it  a  mere  question  of 
compromise  for  Union. 

What  is  the  real  purpose  of  the  fire-eaters?  It  is  not 
necessary  to  suppose  that  they  all  have  a  sensible  pur[)ose. 
Unquestionably  the  far-sighted  amongst  them  must  not  only 
look,  to  separation  from  the  Union,  but  separation  from  Re- 
publicanism. They  must  also  contemplate  placing  themselves 
under  some  despotism  with  a'  standing  army.  How  else  ean 
three  hundred  thousand  slaveholders  hope  to  hold  in  check 
five  millions  of  slaves,  six  millions  of  poor  whites,  and  hold 
the  powerful  Free  States  in  check  ?  Then  the  aristocracy  of 
Slavery  will,  indeed,  rise  above  its  trammels ;  and  then  we 
will  have  the  Marquis  Eight  Hundred  Niggers,  Count  CoUon- 
bag»  and  the  Prince  of  Octoroonia. 

I  have  shown  that  the  history  of  the  ages  was  but  the 
history  of  a  few  men.  Each  recorded  age  haa  its  man.  Ho 
is  the  lesson  of  its  history.  This  age  has  had  its  nian.  Who 
32* 


378 


William  A.  Phillips. 


is  he?  Is  it  Napoleon  III.?  To  be  sure  he  strewed  Europe 
with  the  wreck  of  armies  last  season.  They  lie  under  the 
gi'ape  vines  —  under  the  trampled  maize  :  — 

"  There  let  them  rot,  — ambition-honored  fools. 
Yes  !  honor  gilds  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay. 
Vain  sophistry  —  in  these  behold  the  tools, 
The  broken  tools  that  tyrants  cast  away." 

So  sang  Byron  of  the  wars  of  his  uncle.  He  is  only  that 
uncle's  coj)yist,  —  of  course  he  is  not  the  man,  —  he  is  but  a 
duplicate,  in  the  state  of  political  affairs  I  have  just  attempted 
to  describe.  With  the  great  Protest  that  gives  our  age  its 
life  and  purpose,  menaced, — the  idolatry  of  gold  and  slavery 
threatening  our  downfall,  —  a  prophet  was  sent  to  give  another 
warning.  God  has  already  spoken  to  us  in  the  disparity  of 
progress  between  the  free  and  slave  States,  as  only  Deity  can 
speak.  Blind  and  besotted  though  we  were,  he  has  sent  us  a 
more  startling  lesson.  An  iron  man  of  the  old  Puritan  stock 
emerges  from  the  struggle  between  Freedom  and  Slavery  in 
Kansas.  "Weak  as  he  was,  inspired  with  Christian  philan- 
thropy and  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  he  makes  war 
upon  Slavery,  and  gives  his  life  cheeifully  as  a  protest  against 
the  accursed  system.  Do  not  let  us  blind  ourselves  to  the 
mission  of  old  John  Brown  of  Osawatomie. 

Perhaps  you  and  I  should  here  say  that  we  disapprove  of 
the  raid  on  Harper's  Ferry.  We  did  indeed.  We  hasted  to 
deprecate  it  when  the  telegraph  first  brought  us  the  news. 
Yet,  after  all,  is  it  not  vanity  in  us  to  condemn  what  we  were 
never  equal  to,  even  if  we  thought  it  right  ?  Let  us  rather 
look  calmly  at  it,  and  see  what  it  means. 

It  means  that  God's  Justice,  Christianity,  Republican  Lib- 
erty—  all  the  living  faith  that  is  left  in  this  age  of  progress  — 
is  at  eternal  hostility  with  Slavery  and  Wrong.  It  is  a  lesson 
to  us,  and  a  patriot's  life  went  out  to  give  it.  If  all  the  States 
of  the  Union  had  been  true  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  govern- 
ment was  founded,  we  would  not  have  needed  it.    If  we  read 


William  A.  Phillips.  379 


that  lesson  right  now  we  still  have  the  means  of  a  peaceful 
solution,  embracing  all  our  national  brotherhood.  Are  we 
afraid  of  the  task  ?  Let  us  quietly  and  resolutely  undertake 
it.  There  are  constitutional  and  peaceful  means  to  carry  out 
the  great  Protest  of  our  government.  It  is  the  special  mis- 
sion of  our  age  and  race.  Let  us  basely  forsake  that  mis- 
sion, and  as  we  have  grown  great  in  less  than  two  centuries, 
while  inspired  with  the  purpose,  so  will  we  perish  without  it 
in  less  than  one. 

Neither  you  nor  I  mean  to  excite  servile  insurrections. 
Both  you  and  I  would  prevent  another  "  Harper's  Ferry,"  if 
we  could.  Yet  shall  the  timid  and  soulless  get  up  "  Union  " 
meetings,  to  denounce  the  old  Puritan? — -to  persuade  the 
South  thai,  they  are  not  John  Browns  ?  Imagine  the  derisive 
laughter  such  a  spectacle  must  provoke.  A  man  wljo  has  not 
courage  enough  to  say  his  soul  is  his  own,  or  principle 
enough  to  admire  the  article  when  he  sees  it,  is  anxious  to 
persuade  slave-owners  that  he  is  not  going  to  die  a  martyr  to 
a  great  principle.  Imagine  a  Lilliputian  protesting,  on  his 
honor,  that  he  is  not  Hercules,  or  .a  cruel  pirate  making  affi- 
davit that  he  is  not  the  generous  Howard,  and  you  have  the 
picture. 

Thank  God,  Kansas  has  not  been  guilty  of  any  such  non- 
sense. Shall  we  veil  our  faces  in  shame  ?  or  feel  proud  that 
the  struggle  for  freedom  in  Kansas  —  the  first  leaf  in  its 
history  —  developed  John  Brown  and  his  compatriots?  Vir- 
ginia, in  our  dark  days,  sent  a  troop  of  pitiful  and  pitiless 
adventurers,  to  swell  the  invading  ruffian  horde  of  Buford, 
and  plant  Slavery  upon  our  soil.  They  carried  on  a  bitter 
war  of  invasion  while  they  could.  One  of  them  —  Clay 
Pate  —  surrendered  to  the  hero  of  Black  Jack,  and  the  Mis- 
souri and  Virginia  bandits  were  driven  from  the  Territory. 
The  base,  slavery-ridden  power  at  Washington  stood  by  Vir- 
ginia invaders  then.  It  puts  its  foot  promptly  on  an  invasion 
for  Freedom  now.    Surely  we  can  understand  these  things. 


38o  William  A.  Phillips. 


It  is  not  necessary,  in  admiring  the  heroism  of  Brown's  sacri- 
fice, to  indorse  the  plan  his  judgment  adopted  as  the  best 
means  of  getting  rid  of  Slavery.  In  rejecting  it  let  us  merely 
see  that  we  efficiently  carry  out  our  better  one,  and  God,  and 
humanity,  ay,  and  John  Brown,  will  smile  on  our  efforts. 

We  need  not  imagine  him  an  ogre,  for  many  of  us  knew 
him.  He  dressed  in  plain  and  humble  apparel.  He  was  a 
close  economist  of  all  the  necessities  of  life,  so  that  as  little 
as  possible  of  the  grand  moments  of  life  should  be  spent  in 
acquiring  them.  In  all  the  dreary  Kansas  struggle  he  was  a 
fearless  soldier,  a  cool  and  shrewd  captain, — careful  of  his 
men, — kind  and  considerate  to  his  prisoners.  Unselfishly 
he  consumed  his  own  means  in  the  struggle.  Never  for  a 
moment  asked,  or  would  receive,  real  or  nominal  place  or 
power.  He  held  himself  aloof  from  the  intrigues  of  poli- 
ticians, was  obscure  when  words  or  "resolutions"  were  in 
vogue,  and  in  the  day  of  stern  action  was  the  first  man  in 
Kansas.  While  gingerbread  generals  issued  quires  of  com- 
missions to  all  who  would  bow  down  and  worship  them,  he 
made  the  enemy  quake  at  his  name.  I  do  not  forget  that 
we  have  had  many  other  brave  men  —  we  have  them  now; 
but  who  can  look  back  to  the  Kansas  war  of  freedom  and 
dare  to  tear  the  first  laurel  from  John  Brown  of  Osa- 
watomie  ? 

He  lives  to-day,  my  friends  —  he  will  live  forever.  Like 
Enoch  and  Elijah  he  did  not  merely  have  to  die.  He  subli- 
mated, and  gave  all  the  life  that  was  left  in  him  to  an  immor- 
tal lesson.  The  country  is  so  much  under  the  influence  of  its 
Southern  rulers,  that  it  scarcely  dares  to  say  that  it  admires 
the  heroic  old  Puritan.  Ages  will  yet  come,  not  subject  to 
such  influence ;  they  will  read  that  a  poor  old  man,  with  a 
handful  of  brave  companions,  threw  themselves  away  in  a 
protest  against  Slavery.  They  will  read  the  old  man's  let- 
ters. They  will  ponder  on  his  words :  "  Had  I  done  what  I 
have  done  for  the  great  and  powerful,  instead  of  the  poor  and 


William  A.  Phillips. 


381 


oppressed,  it  would  all  have  been  right."  They  will  ponder 
over  his  coolly  brave  estimate,  that  his  martyrdom  by  Slavery, 
in  the  cause  of  Freedom,  "  would  pay."  With  admiration 
will  they  think  of  him,  as  he  calmly  walked  on  the  scaffold ; 
cheerful,  because  inspired  with  that  lofty  idea.  They  will 
see  the  military  power  of  the  Slave  State  of  Virginia  ranged 
around  his  gallows.  They  will  see  how  studiously  they 
strove  to  wring  one  emotion  of  fear  from  that  brave  old  man. 
The  Slave  authorities  had  brow-beaten  and  intimidated  so  many 
Northern  men,  that  they  w^ere  frr.ntic  at  the  idea  that  one 
could  die,  calmly  despising  their  power.  And  what  a  refine- 
ment of  cruelty  and  culmination  of  heroism  does  that  last 
scene  reveal!  The  martyr  to  the  cause  of  Liberty  stands 
with  his  hands  bound  behind  his  back,  —  the  death  cap  over 
his  eyes,  —  the  rope  around  his  neck.  It  is  a  solemn  mo- 
ment in  which  the  bravest  and  best  human  soul  meets  deith 
face  to  face.  It  was  his  last  moment  of  life  —  the  next  for 
eternity.  Bat  that  moment  is  protracted,  —  cunningly,  cru- 
elly. The  military  power  of  Virginia  is  wheeling  and  cir- 
cling around  the  base  of  the  scaffold.  The  artillery  rattles 
—  the  arms  clank.  John  Brown  does  not  see  it.  He  can 
hear,  but  knows  not  what  it  is.  It  is  only  the  Slave  power 
protracting  that  solemn  moment,  in  hopes  of  wringing  one 
quiver  of  fear  from  that  brave  old  man.  One  groan  —  one 
spasm,  would  be  worth  all  the  manacles  in  Virginia.  They 
failed.  He  died  calmly  and  humbly,  without  a  quiver  on 
his  lips. 

But  Conservatism  says,  All  this  is  dreadful.  Could  not  the 
old  man  have  followed  some  money-making  business,  and  not 
brought  such  a  torrent  of  trouble  on  every  body?  When 
Algernon  Sydney  was  brought  to  the  scaffold  his  noble  rela- 
tives reproached  him  for  the  misery  he  had  occasioned. 
Could  not  the  son  of  an  English  Earl  let  Republicanism 
alone,  and  be  happy?  Calm  and  unmoved,  the  brave  Sydney 
stepped  on  the  scaffold.    He  quailed  not  before  the  "  regu- 


382 


William  A.  Phillips. 


larly  constituted  authorities  "  who  took  his  life.  Humbly  he 
knelt  to  his  God,  and  then  laid  his  head  on  the  block. 
Trembling,  as  he  gazed  on  that  noble  form,  the  executioner 
hesitated,  and  asked,  — 

"  Will  you  rise  again  ?  " 

"  Not  till  the  final  resurrection  —  strike  on." 

Thus  were  slain  Algernon  Sydney  and  John  Brown.  Both 
of  them  disregarded  "  constituted  authorities."  Both  of 
them  knew  that  the  vitality  of  their  race  was  a  Protest 
against  wrong,  and  both  sealed  their  Protests  with  their 
lives. 

.  How  little  Ave  know  of  the  infinite  wisdom  and  mercy  of 
the  God  of  the  Universe.  If  there  is  one  who  doubts  of  his 
guiding  hand  in  all  our  present  affairs,  let  him  look  to  the 
events  of  the  past  two  months.  I  was  in  Leavenworth  when 
the  telegraph  brought  the  strange  news  of  "  Insurrection  at 
Harper's  Ferry ! "  Then  came  the  sad  intelligence  to  Kan- 
sas, that  John  Brown  of  Osawatomie,  Kagi,  Stephens,  Thomp- 
son, Anderson,  and  the  others  were  of  the  party,  and  dead,  or 
dying.  Lying  wounded  and  bloody  in  the  hands  of  the  Vir- 
ginians, sone  of  whom  had  similarly  attacked  us — us,  not 
similarly,  for  they  came  to  plant  Slavery,  and  he  went  to 
proclaim  Freedom.  Then,  when  we  heard  that  all  were  not 
yet  dead,  although  dreadfully  wounded,  we  prayed  that  tiiey 
might  die  as  befitted  brave  soldiers,  and  not  that  they  should 
be  exhibited  on  an  ignominious  gibbet. 

Ah,  my  friends,  we  had  but  little  faith  in  God,  or  humanity. 
How  unerringly  grand  the  finger  that  guided  all  these  events  ! 
Look  to  John  Brown,  surviving  that  desperate  charge,  cov- 
ered with  wounds  and  yet  recovering,  and  escaping  the  fury 
of  the  Virginians  after  he  was  disarmed  and  helpless.-  Why 
was  it?  He  was  spared  to  write  those  grand  letters.  To 
utter  those  simple  but  solemn  Protests  against  the  crime  of 
Slavery.  To  stand  as  the  representative  of  the  Anti-slavery 
sentiment.    Hated  because  he  was.    To  Protest  against  the 


William  A.  Phillips.  383 

wrong  with  his  life,  and  to  meet  such  a  death  undismayed. 
Two  months  ago  i*espectable  papers  were  fain  to  stigmatize 
him,  that  they  might  haply  escape  the  suspicion  of  sympa- 
thizing with  him.  Now,  no  respectable  paper  would  like  to 
do  such  a  thing.  Then,  honorable  membei's  of  Congress  com- 
pared him  to  a  highwayman,  who  now  trace  the  mainsprings 
of  his  action  to  Jefferson,  Christianity,  and  God. 

The  time  is  coming,  when  an  impartial  posterity  will 
calmly  review  the  career  of  John  Brown,  —  the  cause  for 
which  he  died,  and  the  men  who  remorselessly  took  his  life ; 
and  looking  from  this  generation  to  his  sacrifice,  will  recog- 
nize in  them  the  Agk  and  the  IMax. 


"  They  who  assert  that,  in  this  enterprise,  he  was  moved  rather  by  hatred 
of  the  slavcliolder  than  affection  for  the  slave,  do  his  memory  most  foul  wrong-. 
The  love  of  bis  heart  comprehended  and  encompassed  both.  He  believed  that 
unless  the  interference  of  some  third  party  should  anticipate  and  thus  prevent 
the  interference  of  slaves  themselves,  these  latter  would,  one  day,  overthrow 
the  inQtitution  by  a  bloody  war  of  extermination  against  their  masters ;  and  it 
was  to  prevent  the  havoc  and  carnage  which,  as  he  conceived,  threatened  the 
South,  that  he  entered  upon  his  ill-fated  movement.  For,  he  argued,  the  same 
elements  of  resistance  to  oppression  which  would  result  in  all  bloody  excesses 
if  not  wisely  and  properly  directed,  might  be  made  subservient -to  the  accom- 
plishment of  high  purposes  of  humanity,  if  the  governing  intelligence  was  at 
their  side.  Wherefore,  in  order  to  supply  that  intellectual  sagacity  which  the 
slaves  lacked,  and  thus  enable  them  to  achieve  their  freedom,  while  restrain- 
mg  them  from  the  cruelties  into  which  their  instincts  would  hurry  them,  he 
gave  himself  to  this  euterprise.  In  regard  to  his  personal  character,  I  must, 
though  I  reside  in  the  South,  where  I  expect  to  live  and  die,  be  permitted  to 
say  that  it  has  been  studiously  and  elaborately  misrepresented.  There  never 
lived  a  man  whose  desire  to  promote  human  welfare  and  human  happiness  was 
more  inextinguishable.  Men  have  grown  hoarse  with  calumniating  his  mem- 
ory, who  were  never  worthy  to  unloose  the  latchct  of  his  shoes.  Venal  poU- 
ticians,  grown  sleek  upon  public  plunder,  and  men  who  cannot  perform  an  act 
that  is  not  stained  with  some  deadly  sin,  have  lifted  up  their  hands  in  holy 
horror,  and  yelled  out  their  execrable  execrations  against  his  name.  John 
Brown  was  no  tongue-hero — no  virtue-prattler.  He  was  a  reticent  man ;  and 
when  he  did  speak,  the  utterance  was  from  his  heart,  and  not  his  lungs.  His 
fni^h  was  very  simple.  He  desired  society  to  be  pure,  free,  unselfish — full  of 
liberty  and  love.  He  believed  it  capable  of  such  realization.  The  wliole  his- 
tory of  his  life  is  that  of  an  upward  endeavor.  « Liberty  ! '  that  was  the  key 
to  his  soul ;  the  mnstcr-passion  that  controlled  all  his  other  ambitions — per- 
sonal, social,  or  political.   It  swayed  him  like  a  frenzy." 


*•  The  condemnation  and  death  of  John  Bro^ra  are  to  be  estimated 
by  equities,  in  which  the  Throne  of  Eteni.U  Justice  alone  has  its  foun- 
dation. In  those  scales  legal  formulas  are  dead  and  ■weightless.  Doc- 
tors of  the  Kebrew  Law,  by  its  letter,  make  a  conclusive  case  against 
Jesus  Christ,  and  show  that  His  condemnation  and  execution  by  the 
Koman  Governor  Wise  of  their  Virginia,  were  according  to  their 
forms  of  law.  And  yet,  the  faith  and  hope  of  Cluistendom  rest  on 
the  basis  that  that  judgment  and  death  were  the  sacrificial  and  sacra- 
mental seals  of  the  Jklessiahship  which  stamped  the  Peasant-born  the 
Saviour  of  the  world.  In  measuring  this  case  by  these  eternal  prin- 
ciples, do  not  quote  '  Unions,'  and  '  compacts,'  and  '  constitutions '  to 
me  !  I  deny  their  validity  !  I  pronounce  them  temporary  and  trashy, 
■when  they  attempt  to  contravene  the  Immutable  ! "  • 

A.  G.  Riddle,  {Cleveland,  Ohio.') 


I. 


Letters  from  Northern  Men. 

TOHN  BROWN,  when  in  prison  at  Chariestowrij  Vir- 
tf  ginia,  received  a  large  number  of  letters  of  sympathy 
from  ditt'erent  parts  of  the  Northern  States.  None  of  them 
designed  for  publication,  and  written,  mostly,  from  the  heart, 
they  indicate  more  clearly  the  sentiment  of  the  people  than 
any  other  utterances  that  the  old  man's  glorious  act  called 
forth.  Many  of  his  correspondents  asked  for  his  autograph  or 
begged  for  a  lock  of  his  hair ;  but  the  greater  part  of  such 
notes  and  such  requests  I  suppress.  Other  letters,  by  persons 
who  would  be  known,  even  if  their  initials  only  were  pub- 
lished, I  find  it,  also,  expedient  to  omit. 

Dividing  them  into  their  natural  order,  as.  Letters  from 
Northern  Men,  from  John  Brown's  Relatives,  and  from 
Northern  Women,  I  need  make  no  apology,  I  feel,  for 
occupying  so  much  of  my  volume  with  these  interesting 
evidences  of  a  Christian  Republicanism  in  America.  With- 
out other  preface,  then,  than  to  request  you  to  note  how 
superior,  in  every  respect,  are  the  letters  of  the  women,  and 
quietly  to  suggest  the  question,  whether,  upon  the  whole,  the 
possession  of  political  rights  by  them  would  very  greatly 
hasten  the  approach  of  Chaos,  I  submit  these  records  of 
John  Brown's  recognition  as  a  just  man  and  a  Christian  hero 
to  the  heads  and  tht  hearts  of  the  American  Nation. 

(387) 


388         Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


FROM  JOHN  brown's  OLD  SCHOOLMASTER. 

Litchfield,  Connecticut,  Nov.  8. 
To  John  Brown,  now  in  bonds.  My  Dear  Friend:  In  the  hope 
that  you  are  permitted  to  receive  letters  from  those  who  have  known 
and  esteemed  you  in  other  years,  I  desire  to  send  you  a  few  lines  to 
assure  you  that  1  hold  your  name  in  pleasant  remembrance  among  the 
associations  of  early  life.  I  know  you  have  not  forgotten  the  winter  of 
1816-17,  when  yourself  and  your  brother  Salmon  and  Orson  M. 
Oviatt,  all  then  from  Hudson,  Ohio,  were  pupils  in  Morris  Academy, 
Litchfield  South  Farms,  under  the  care  of  Rev.  "William  R.  "Weeks,  I 
also  being  assistant  teacher  in  the  same  institution  ;  how  you  boarded 
at  General  "WoodrufTs,  since  deceased ;  and  how  we  had  meetings  for 
religious  conference  and  prayers,  in  which  your  own  voice  was  often 
heard.  Why,  I  remember  all  these  things  as  though  they  were  the 
times  and  scenes  of  yesterday.  I  remember,  also,  meeting  you  about 
ten  years  ago  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  how  we  then  had  a 
long  talk  regarding  the  events  and  mutual  experiences  of  the  by-gone 
years ;  also  an  interchange  of  opinions  relating  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.  Excuse  me  for  adverting  to  these  times,  so  unlike  those 
through  which  you  have  since  passed.  I  am  an  old  man  of  sixty-five, 
have  myself  gone  through  a  pilgrimage  of  some  light  and  many  shades ; 
and  now,  I  somehow  love  to  thankfully  dwell  on  the  light  and  bright 
spots  of  the  past.  And  of  my  Present  —  what  ?  An  invalid  unable 
to  labor,  except  a  very  little,  and  here  in  my  native  town  awaiting  my 
Master's  call  into  the  Future  and  Unseen.  You  too,  —  a  Torrington- 
born  boy,  —  nephew  of  Deacon  John  of  New  Hartford,  (they  say;) 
he  was  my  friend,  —  now  in  heaven,  and  awaiting  your  translation 
thither.  lie  was  as  sound  a  piece  of  theological  "beading  timber" 
as  ever  grew  on  earth,  and  a  consistent  and  practical  Christian  too. 
Be  assured,  my  dear  afflicted  brother,  that  good  people,  here,  in  Goshen 
and  Torrington  and  Yv'inchester,  and  all  about,  do  most  cordially 
sympathize  with  you  in  all  your  sorrows,  and  remember  you  most 
devoutly  in  their  supplications  unto  God.  Yes,  truly ;  whatever  be 
their  views  as  to  the  wisdom  or  otherwise  of  your  plans  and  pro- 
ceedings, their  lienrts  go  up  to  the  High  and  Holy  Throne  in  your 
behalf.  Y'ou  do  not  expect  a  release  from  prison,  such  as  Peter  had 
while  ' '  sleeping  between  two  soldiers  bound  with  two  chains,"  but 
the  prayer  "  made  Avithout  ceasing  of  the  Church  unto  God  "  for  you ; 
and  your  own  faith  and  trust  in  Him  may  avail  for  a  better  and  more 
glorious  deliverance  by  the  gate  of  death  and  through  the  gate  of  life 
into  the  city  of  our  Lord  on  high.  Rhoda  may  not  be  there  to  hearken, 
(see  Acts  xi.  13,)  but  angels  will.   God  grant  you,  through  the  merits 


Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


of  his  Son,  an  abundant  entrance  into  his  everlasting  kingdom.  If 
all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them 
"who  are  the  "  Called  according  to  His  purpose,"  as  you  and  I  know 
they  do,  how  comes  it  that  some  of  His  dear  children  die  by  a  violent 
death  ?  For  the  same  divine  reason  and  by  the  same  divine  appoint- 
ment that  other  Christians  die  in  their  beds.  Our  Heavenly  Father 
has  a  great  many  ways  by  which  He  calls  His  children  home,  and 
whether  by  consumption  or  fever,  or  the  flood  or  the  flame,  or  by  any 
other  mode,  His  love  to  thera  is  still  the  same. 

Be  of  good  cheer,  then,  my  brother ;  and,  living  or  djring,  all  will 
be  well.  I  have  written  more,  it  may  be,  than  I  ought ;  but  hope 
there  is  nothing  here  which  you  may  not  safely  see ;  nothing  whiih 
will  do  injury  to  yourself  or  any  one.  If  I  might  be  permitted  a  line 
from  you  before  you  leave,  I  would  esteem  it  as  a  special  favor ;  but, 
in  any  case,  "  the  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  thee  and  give 
thee  peace ; "  and  so,  till  we  meet  in  the  world  to  come,  —  Farewells 
Yours  most  affectionately  and  truly,  H.  L.  Vaili.* 

FROM  THADDEUS  HYATT. 

New  Yobk,  17ov.  14. 

My  Very  Dear  Friend :  Y'our  letter  to  ilrs.  Maria  Child  has  at- 
tracted my  attention  and  induced  on  my  part  the  action  indicated  in 
the  enclosed  slip  from  the  N.  Y.  Tribune.  Y''ou  will  see  that  I  need 
your  autograph.  Please  address  me  immediately.  Give  yourself  no 
further  anxiety  as  to  the  needy  ones  left  behind.  Warm  and  loving 
hearts  by  thousands  at  this  moment  are  ready  to  aid  them.  You  little 
knew,  my  friend,  when  you  gave  me  your  likeness,  to  what  good  ac- 
count it  would  be  turned ;  and  I,  alas !  how  little  could  I  then  dream 
of  your  impending  fate,  or  in  that  hour  guess  the  motives  that 
prompted  you  to  enjoin  upon  me  the  strictest  caution  as  to  exposing 
the  photograph  to  be  seen.  Did  your  young  friend  perish  ?  God  be 
with  you,  my  brave  heart !  For  one  animated  by  such  faith  as  yours 
piti/  were  reproach.  Instead  of  pity  I  therefore  tender  you,  O  my 
friend,  sj-mpathy  and  a  like  faith  with  your  own. 

God  and  his  eternal  heavens  are  above  us !  Eternity  is  ours !  So 
that,  in  His  sight  who  shall  judge  us  at  the  last  we  stand  approved. 
Life  matters  not,  and  death  matters  not ;  and  whether  the  hours  of  this 
day,  or  the  morrow,  be  shortened,  is  of  little  account ;  for  the  shorter 
life  is,  the  longer  eternity  is  ;  and  which  is  best  for  us  depends  wholly 
upon  God ;  and  in  which  we  can  best  serve  Him  it  is  for  God  aloj^fi 
to  say. 

#      Joliu  Brown's  reply,       I'uVUc  Lifo,"  pp,  S54  ftnd  SaSw 

33* 


390        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


Your  courage,  my  brother,  challenges  the  admiration  of  men ;  youi' 
&ith,  the  admiration  of  angels.  Be  steadfast  to  the  end  I  Be  patient ! 
Farewell !  I  am  yours  in  Christ  "  for  the  life  that  now  is,  and  for  that 
which  is  to  come."    Farewell ! 

Your  affectionate  brother,  Thaddeus  Hyatt. 

AID  FOR  THE  FAMILY  OP  JOHN  BROWN. 
In  his  letter  to  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child,  John  Brown  says  : 

"  I  Imve  at  homo  a  wife  and  three  yoniig  daughters,  the  youngest  but  little  over  five 
years  old,  the  oldest  neurly  sixteen.  I  have  also  two  dauj;hter»-iii-law,  whose  husbands 
bare  both  fallen  near  me  here.  There  is  also  another  widow,  Mrs.  Thompson,  whoso 
husband  fell  here.  Whether  she  is  a  mother  or  not,  /cannot  say.  All  these,  my  wife 
included,  lis-e  at  North  Elba,  Essex  County,  New  York.  I  have  a  middle-aged  son, 
nrho  has  been,  in  some  degree,  a  cripple  from  his  childhood,  who  would  have  as  much 
as  he  could  do  to  earn  a  living.  i!e  was  a  most  dreadful  s\iiTerer  Su  Kansas,  ond  lost 
all  he  had  laid  up.  lie  has  not  enough  to  clothe  himself  for  the  winter  comfurtubly. 
I  have  no  living  son,  cr  son-in-law,  who  did  not  suffer  terribly  iu  Kanpa;;. 

"  Now,  dear  friend,  would  you  not  as  soon  contribute  fifty  cents  now,  and  a  like  sum 
yearly,  for  the  relief  of  those  very  poor  and  deepIy-alBictcd  persons  ?  To  enable  t}\eni 
to  supply  themselves  and  their  children  with  bread  and  very  plain  clothing,  and  to 
enable  the  children  to  receive  a  common  English  education  ?  Will  you  also  devote 
your  own  energies  to  induce  others  to  Join  you  in  giving  a  like  amount,  or  any  olhcr 
amount,  to  constitute  a  littlo  fond  for  the  purpose  named? " 

Friends  of  Freedom  at  the  North,  to  these  simple  and  touching 
words  nothing  more  effective  and  affecting  can  be  added.  The  story 
is  here  in  its  simplest  and  saddest  form.  Widows  and  fatherless  chil- 
dren !  all  for  liberty !  Slain  for  a  principle !  The  heads  of  the  entire 
family  slain  !  All  the  male  members  cut  off!  And  this  in  the  Nine- 
teenth Century,  and  this  amid  a  free  people ! 

If  there  be  any  braver  man  in  the  country  than  John  Bro^ra,  let 
him  criticise  John  Brown  at  Harper's  Ferry.  If  not,  let  another  gen- 
eration pass  upon  the  ftict  and  its  author.  Our  duties  now  are  with 
and  for  the  living.    God  and  history  will  have  a  care  for  the  dead. 

Friends  at  the  North,  what  will  you  do  for  John  Brown's  family  ?  1 
have  a  photograph  of  the  old  man,  presented  to  me  by  his  own  hands, 
an  admirable  likeness.  Let  all  who  sympathize  in  the  purpose  send 
each  a  dollar,  and  I  mil  forward  for  each  such  sum  an  exact  copy  of 
the  original,  and  with  it,  if  possible,  John  Brown's  autograph.  The 
proceeds  from  ten  thousand  such  copies  will  produce  a  fund  of  eight 
thousand  dollars  for  the  benefit  of  the  helpless  and  afiilcted  ones,  whom 
the  Kansas  hero  so  touchingly  commends  to  our  sympathies  and  care. 

Suitable  acknowledgment  of  funds  received  and  applied,  will  be 
made  from  time  to  time  through  the  columns  of  the  N.  Y.  Trib- 


al 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  391 


une.  The  photographs  can  be  sent  by  mail,  as  music  is  sent,  at  the 
expense  of  a  stamp,  which  may  be  enclosed  with  the  order.  Address 
me  at  New  York.  Thaddeus  Hyatt, 

Kew  York,  Nov.  M,  1859. 

FKOM  A  slaveholder's  SON. 
Dear  Brother :  My  father  was  a  slaveholder,  and  when  at  school 
I  commenced  searching  the  Bible  for  sanction  of  the  divine  institution, 
but  have  not  found  it.  I  am  Old  School  Presbyterian,  and  believe 
with  our  friends,  the  Quakers,  Christ's  kingdom  will  be  peace ;  but 
now  Christ  told  his  disciples.  He  that  hath  a  sword,  let  him  take  it. 
Therefore,  I  cannot  say  I  thinic  you  exceeded  your  commission,  and  I 
rejoice  that  a  mmt  has  been  found  worthy  to  suffer  for  Christ.  Yes, 
dear  brother,  God  Himself  will  send  His  angel,  December  2,  '59,  to 
release  you  from  your  prison  of  clay,  and  conduct  you  to  your  Re- 
deemer and  mine,  where  you  will  join  the  souls  under  the  altar,  cry- 
ing. How  long  before  your  blood  be  avenged  on  the  earth  ?  Truly, 
your  ignominious  death  has  a  glory  equal  to  that  of  the  Apostles,  in 
the  eye  of  thousands  who  are  praying  for  you  that  all  your  sins  may 
be  blotted  out,  and  Christ's  Cause,  for  which  you  suffer,  may  be  speed- 
ily supplied  with  other  witnesses  for  Bight.  Enclosed  [is]  one  dollar 
for  your  use,  because  I  want  to  do  something  to  aid  you,  hoping  others 
will  do  much.  Kind  regards  to  your  family.  One  of  the  Seven  Thou- 
sand the  Lord  knows ;  to  every  one  known  by  man,  who  hate  slavery 
because  the  Lord  does.  [No  signature  nor  date.]  j 

FROM  COLORED  CITIZENS  OF  CHICAGO. 

Chicago,  November  17. 
Dear  Friend :  We  certainly  have  great  reasons,  as  well  as  intense 
desires,  to  assure  you  that  we  deeply  sympathize  with  you  and  your 
beloved  family.  Not  only  do  we  sympathize  in  tears  and  prayers  with 
you  and  them,  but  we  uill  do  so  in  a  more  tangible  form,  by  contribut- 
ing material  aid  to  help  those  of  your  family  of  whom  you  have  spoken 
to  our  mutual  friend,  Mrs.  L.  Maria  Child.  How  could  we  be  so  \m- 
grftteful  as  to  do  less  for  one  who  has  siifTerod,  bled,  and  now  ready 
to  die  for  the  cause  r  Greater  love  can  no  man  have,  than  to  lay 
down  his  life  for  the  poor,  despised,  and  lowly." 

Your  friends,  H.  O.  W.,  and  others. 

FROM  AN  OHIO  CLERGYMAN. 

Cleveland,  November  19. 
Dear  Sir  :  ITiough  personally  an  entire  stranger,  yet  as  a  friend  to 
the  righteous  cause  for  which  you  have  shown  yourself  wiJliiig  to  sy^ 


392        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


fer  all  things  —  the  cause  of  Human  Freedom  —  I  write  to  request  that 
should  you  have  time  to  forward,  as  soon  as  may  be,  a  written  state- 
ment of  the  time  and  place  of  your  birth,  the  name  of  your  parents, 
youi"  church  relations,  time  of  marriage  and  to  whom,  different  places 
of  residence,  time  of  removal  to  and  from  Kansas,  incidents  of  trial 
and  triumph,  personal  and  domestic,  while  there,  and  any  thing  you 
may  think  would  be  of  interest  for  the  object  now  about  to  be  named. 
Then  the  object  of  my  request  is  the  following :  It  is  my  purpose, 
should  it  please  God  that  you  should  be  offered  up,  the  Sabbath  fol- 
lowing the  event,  to  improve  from  my  pulpit  the  occasion  of  your 
execution ;  that  is  to  say,  to  preach  your  funeral  sermon.  Joining 
with  thousands  in  the  daQy  earnest  prayer  that  the  abundant  grace 
of  God  may  support  you,  and  fellow-sufferers,  in  this  your  time  of 
great  need,  and  through  his  rich  mercy  in  Christ  Jesus  administer 
an  abundant  entrance  into  His  everlasting  kingdom,  I  subscribe 
myself 

Your  unknown  but  sympathizing  firiend  and  brother, 

A.  C. 

FROM  A  RHODE  ISLAND  FRIEND. 

WooNSOCKET,  R.  I.,  Nov.  20. 
To  Captain  John  Brown,  now  under  sentence  of  death  at  Charlestown, 
Virginia,  for  endeavoring  to  liberate  the  Bondmen. 

Much  Respected  Friend :  It  is  now  nearly  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty  years  since  our  Blessed  Redeemer  gave  His  life  for  poor,  wicked, 
ttnd  fallen  humanity.  Since  that  time  the  progress  has  been  slow,  as 
appears  to  us  ;  but  steady  towards  those  exalted  and  godlike  principles 
which  he  enunciated.  It  is  difficult  to*  understand  how  any  community 
calling  themselves  Christians  can,  by  what  they  call  Christian  laws,  try, 
condemn,  and  execute  a  man  for  endeavoring  to  do  the  very  same  acta 
which  our  Saviour  came  to  do,  viz.,  «♦  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to 
bring  deliverance  to  the  captive,  and  set  at  liberty  them  that  aro 
bound." 

I  recollect  your  visit  at  our  place  many  years  since,  when  yow  were 
in  the  wool  trade ;  bat  did  not  dream  of  your  immortalizing  your 
name  with  the  host  of  martyrs  which  have  gone  before  you,  who  chose 
to  obey  God  rather  than  man. 

All  I  can  say  is  this :  Hold  on ;  trust  in  God  to  the  last,  and  Christ 
wUl  redeem  you  to  Himself.  Die  like  a  Christian  and  like  a  man,  if 
needs  be,  is  the  sincere  desire  of  your  friend,  E.  H. 

{Enclosed  was  a  check  for  one  hundred  dollars.] 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  393 


I.ETTER  FROM  A  SPIRITUALIST. 

New  York,  November  21. 

My  Dear  Sir  :  Although  I  am  not  personally  acquainted  with  you, 
yet  your  history,  as  given  through  the  public  press,  your  letters,  your 
stem  integrity  and  unconquerable  zeal  for  what  you  deem  to  be  truth 
and  righteousness,  enlist  my  sympathies  for  you  in  your  present  try- 
ing situation ;  and  also  in  the  Spirit  World  into  which  you  soon  ex- 
pect to  be  ushered. 

So  far  as  I  understand  youi*  principles  in  regard  to  freedom  and 
physical  slavery,  I  think  you  are  right ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  my 
present  view  of  the  case  is,  you  was  wrong  in  the  method  by  which 
you  proposed  to  incainate  your  principles  in  those  who  enslave  and 
those  who  are  held  subject  to  bondage.  But  whether  I  agree  or  disa- 
gree with  your  method,  it  is  of  no  consequence  now.  My  chief  object 
in  writing  is,  first,  to  inform  you  that  I  have  abundant  evidence  that 
hanging  does  not  kill  a  man,  or  prevent  his  influence  in  urging  for- 
ward the  worthy  humanitary  purposes  of  his  affection  in  the  earth ; 
and  I  write  now  to  solicit  from  you  this  favor,  namely,  if  you  go  into 
the  Spirit  Realm  before  I  do,  that  you  will  from  your  new  and  ele- 
vated position,  and  with  the  aid  of  a  broader  comprehension  of  man's 
nature  and  relations,  and  of  the  consequences  of  this  life  on  the  Fu- 
ture One,  —  review  this  whole  subject  of  physical  and  mental  slavery, 
and  communicate  the  result,  and  your  final  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter,  through  some  medium  of  your  own.  choice,  with  directions 
for  them  to  forward  the  same  to  my  paper,  The  Spiriftial  Telegraph, 
or  to  The  Tribune,  or  some  other  widely-circulated  paper  for  pub- 
lication. 

I  suggest  for  your  consideration  as  a  medium  for  such  communica- 
tion, Mrs.  J  S  ,  No.  ,  S  D  Street,  Buffalo,  New 

York ;  or  the  medium  at  the  circle  where  I  attend  every  Thursday- 
evening,  at  the  comer  of  Avenue  and  M  S  ,  in  the  city 

of  New  York.  * 

I  am  not  aware  that  you  have  any  knowledge  that  spirits  communi- 
cate wth  men,  or  that  you  have  any  sympathy  with  Spiritualism  now, 
but  I  know  you  will  have  when  you  go  hence  ;  and  then,  if  not  now, 
please  take  these  suggestions  kindly  into  consideration  for  the  edifica- 
tion and  elevation  of  humanity,  and  the  incarnation  of  the  Divine 
Order  among  men  on  the  earth. 

You  are  at  liberty  to  make  me  instrumental  in  forwarding  any  com- 
mtmication  you  please  to  make  from  the  Spirit  Land  to  your  loving 
family,  or  friends  on  earth. 

Now,  sir,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  good-hy,  until  I  hear  from  you  ill 


394        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


time  or  from  the  Spirit  World,  or  meet  you  there  and  perchance  make 
your  personal  acquaintance. 

May  you,  now  and  ever,  have  the  consolations  which  flow  from  a  true 
religious  life  and  humanitary  motives  and  efforts,  which  lift  men  above 
the  errors  in  judgment,  methods,  and  temporal  consequences,  into  the 
comprehension  of  the  Divine  Beatitudes  which  overrule  all  things  to  the 
glory  of  God  and  human  progress.  CnAKiEs  Partridge. 

I  mail  to  your  address  a  few  copies  of  Tlie  Spiritual  Telegraph,  for  your 
perusal. 

FROM  A  CONNECTICUT  FRIEND. 

CoLi,iNsvii,LE,  November  23. 

My  Very  Dear  Sir  :  Little  did  I  thinls,  when  I  was  so  much 
enjoying  your  society  at  my  home  a  few  months  ago,  it  would  ever 
be  my  lot  to  address  you  imder  such  painful  circumstances ;  nor  can  I 
here  find  words  to  express  to  you  the  depth  of  my  sympathy.  We 
mourn  for  you  as  for  a  father,  yet  not  without  hope ;  and  much  do  we 
rejoice  to  know  that  you  still  find  comfort  and  consolation  in  com- 
munion with  that  God  whom,  Ave  doubt  not,  it  has  ever  been  your  aim 
to  love  and  serve.  And,  although  he  may  permit  Virginia's  sons  and 
daughters  to  dye  their  hands  in  your  blood,  we  know  that  act  will  do 
much  to  advance  the  cause  we  love.  True,  'tis  a  bitter  cup,  and 
would  to  God  it  might  pass  from  you.    Yet  1  think  I  hear  you  say — 

T/nj  tcill,  O  God,  be  done" 

Let  us  thank  God  that  the  Power  {calkd  Law)  which  will  lead  you 
forth  to  martyrdom  can  reach  no  farther.  There  is  a  resting-place 
where  a  Higher  Law  is  known  and  recognized,  and  where  the  op- 
pressed go  free.  May  God  grant  that  we  may  meet  there  when  he 
shall  have  done  with  us  here. 

You  will  be  pleased  to  learn  that  your  wife  is  being  remembered  in 
Buch  a  way  as  will  relieve  her  fi-om  pecuniary  want.  We  feel  it  a 
privilege  to  contribute  something  for  her  comfort,  who  has  sacrificed 
80  much  for  the  "cause. 

You  will  never  know  with  how  much  interest  your  friends  have 
watched  each  daily  paper  to  catch  each  item  of  news  in  your  case,  and 
each  word  you  have  been  permitted  to  utter ;  for  Ave  doubt  not  God 
has  directed  what  you  should  say.  Those  A\'ords  of  truth  you  have 
spoken  have  rung  from  East  to  West,  carrying  Avith  them  a  deep  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  for  the  honest  and  nohh  Capt.  John  BroAvn.  Many  are 
the  prayers  Avhich  have  been  offered  that  you  may  be  sustained  in  the 
hour  of  trial.  Surely,  He  who  has  thus  kept  you  Avill  not  forsake  you. 

Thus  feebly  do  I  offer  you  my  heartfelt  sympathy.  May  God  ever 
\/i  present  to  bless  and  keep  you. 

Ypur  true  friend,  H.  N.  P. 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  395 


FROM  A  SCOTCH  COVENANTER. 

Nkw  Axexandkia,  Penn.,  November  23. 

Dear  Sir  :  Permit  a  stranger  to  address  you.  I  am  the  pastor  of  a 
congregation  of  people  known  as  Scotch  Covenanters  —  a  people  who 
refuse  to  incorporate  with  this  Government  by  holding  its  offices  or 
using  its  elective  franchise  on  the  ground  that  it  refuses  to  perform  the 
duty  of  Government  either  to  God  or  man.  It  neither  acknowledges 
the  authority  of  God,  nor  protects  the  persons  of  its  subjects  ;  there- 
fore we  do  not  acknowledge  it  to  be  the  moral  ordinance  of  God  for 
good  to  be  obeyed  for  conscience'  sake. 

I  do  not  address  you  from  the  expectation  that  you  need  any  prompt- 
ings to  that  fortitude  which  you  have  so  nobly  displayed,  and  which  I 
doubt  not  is  begotten  in  your  soul  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  through  a  good 
conscience  and  a  good  cause.  I  have  no  fear  but  that  your  own  familiar- 
ity lyith  the  word  of  God  and  the  way  to  the  Throne,  will  fortify  your 
heart  against  the  foul  aspersions  cast  upon  your  character  and  motives 
by  the  purchased  presses  and  parrot  pulpits.  He  that  fears  God  need 
fear  no  other.  Still  I  know  that  the  bravest  heart  may  be  cheered  in 
the  midst  of  sore  trials  by  a  kindly  word  from  ex'en  a  stranger.  And, 
while  the  bulls  of  Bashan  are  roaring  around  you,  it  may  be  some 
consolation  to  you  to  know  that  there  are  some  earnest  Christians  who 
regard  you  as  a  martyr  to  human  liberty,  and  pray  for  a  large  out- 
pouring of  the  martyr  spirit  upon  you,  and  feel  that  m  such  a  cause 
'tis  glorious  to  die.  AVhatever  prudence  may  whisper  as  to  the  best 
course,  God  requires  us  to  remember  them  in  bonds  as  bound  with 
them,"  (Heb.  xiii.  3,)  and  declares  that  "we  know  that  we  have 
passed  from  death  to  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren,"  (I  John  iii. 
14  ;)  "that  we  ought  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren,"  (1  Join 
iii.  16  ;)  and  if  any  have  this  world's  goods,  and  secth  his  brother 
have  need,  and  shutteth  up  his  bowels  of  compassion  from  him,  how 
dwelleth  the  love  of  God  in  him  ? "  (I  John  iii.  17.)  If  these  are  the 
proper  tests  of  Christianity,  I  think,  at  least,  you  have  no  reason  to 
fear  a  comparison  of  character  in  that  respect  with  your  clerical 
traduoers. 

But,  my  dear  brother,  you  will  allow  me  to  urge  upon  you  a  rigid 
inquiry  into  your  motives  —  to  know  whether  you  have  taken  up  the 
cross  for  Christ's  sake,  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  His  oppressed  people? 
If  you  have  made  all  this  sacrifice  for  Christ  and  His  cross,  you  have 
the  promise  of  a  hundred  fold  now  in  this  life,  and  in  the  world  to 
come  eternal  life,  (Mark  x.  29,  30.)  Your  character  will  be  a  hun- 
dred fold  more  than  redeemed,  and  a  hundred  fold  better  legacy  will 
accrue  to  jova  family  than  you  could  otherwise  have  left  them. 


39^        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


I  know  that  your  mind  is  deeply  exercised  in  behalf  of  the  slave ; 
but  I  would  suggest  to  you  another  feature  of  "  the  in-epressible  con- 
flict," to  which  you  may  not  have  bestowed  as  much  thought :  God's 
controversy  with  this  nation  for  dishonor  done  to  His  Majesty.  This 
nation,  in  its  Constitution,  makes  no  submission  to  the  King  of  kings  ; 
pays  no  respect  to  His  Higher  Law  ;  never  mentions  His  name,  even 
in  the  inauguration  oath  of  its  Chief  Magistrate.  God  has  said.  He 
"  will  tnm  the  wicked  into  hell,  and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God," 
(Ps.  ix.  17.)  To  His  Son  He  says,  "The  nation  and  kingdom  that 
will  not  serve  thee  shall  perish ;  yea,  those  nations  shall  be  utterly 
wasted,"  (Isa.  Ix.  12.) 

If  you  must  die  a  witness  for  the  "inalienable  rights"  of  man,  I 
desire  that  j'ou  would  also  set  the  seal  of  your  blood  to  a  noble  testi- 
mony for  the  supreme  authority  and  outraged  majesty  of  God,  and 
with  your  expiring  breath  call  upon  this  guilty  nation,  not  only  to 
"let  God's  people  go,"  but  also  to  "  serve  God  with  fear  and  kiss  His 
Son  lest  He  be  angry." 

You  have  been  called  before  judges  and  governors,  and  "it  has 
been  given  you  what  to  say  and  how  to  speak,"  and  I  pray  that  when 
you  are  called  to  witness  a  good  confession  before  many  witnesses, 
that  there  will  be  given  you  living  words  that  will  scathe  and  burn  in 
the  heart  of  this  great  and  guilty  nation,  until  their  oppression  of  men 
and  treason  against  God  shall  be  clean  purged  out. 

Noble  man  !  you  are  highly  honored  of  God  !  You  are  raised  up 
to  a  high,  commanding  eminence,  where  every  word  you  utter  reaches 
the  furthest  comer  of  this  great  country  ;  yes,  of  the  civilized  world. 
%Vhat  matter  if  it  be  from  a  scaffold,  Samson-like  you  will  slay  more 
Philistines  in  your  death,  than  you  ever  did  or  could  by  a  long  life  ; 
and  I  pray  God  that  in  your  dying  agony,  you  may  have  the  gratifica- 
tion of  feeling  the  pillars  of  Dagon's  Temple  crumbling  in  your  grasp. 
O,  feel  that  you  are  a  great  actor  on  a  world-wide  stage ;  that  you  have 
a  most  important  part  to  play,  and  that  while  you  are  suffering  for 
Christ,  he  will  take  care  of  you.  He  sends  none  a  warfare  on  their 
own  charges,  and,  "as  the  tribulations  of  Christ  abound,  the  conso- 
lations that  are  by  Christ  will  much  more  abound."  Fear  not  to  die ; 
look  on  the  scaffold  not  as  a  curse  but  an  honor,  since  it  has  been 
sanctified  by  Christ.  It  is  no  longer,  "  Cursed  is  every  one  that 
hangeth  on  a  tree ; "  that  curse  was  borne  by  Jesus  ;  —  but  now  it  is 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  suffers  for  righteousness'  sake  ;  for  his  is  the  king- 
dom of  Heaven." 

I  still  entertain  the  lingering  hope  that  this  nation  will  not  add  to 
its  already  full  cup  of  crime  the  blood  of  your  judicial  murder,  and  I 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  397 


daily  pray  God  "  to  hear  the  groaning  of  the  prisoner,  and  loose  those 
that  are  appointed  to  death,"  (Ps.  cii.  20,) 

I  wish  to  he  understood  as  addressing  your  companions  along  with 
you.  Should  this  reach  you,  will  you  gratify  me  by  letting  me  know. 
I  greatly  desire  to  know  more  of  one  in  whom  I  feel  so  deep  an 
interest. 

I  commend  you  to  God  and  to  the  word  of  His  Grace,  that  is  able 
to  keep  you  from  falling,  and  present  you  faultless  before  Him  with 
exceeding  great  joy.         Yours,  for  God  and  the  Slave, 

A.  M.  M. 

FROM  MR.  SEWALL. 

Boston,  Xovemhcr  24. 
Dear  Sir :  It  will,  I  am  sure,  give  you  pleasure  to  know  that  a  • 
committee  of  whom  I  am  one,  appointed  at  a  meeting  held  a  few  days 
ago  in  Boston,  have  already  raised  about  five  hundred  dollars  to  aid 
your  afBicted  family.  Part  of  the  money  was  received  from  the  sale 
of  tickets,  and  part  has  been  sent  in  without  any  effort  on  our  part. 
We  are  going  to  advertise  in  the  newspapers,  and  expect  to  get  a 
much  larger  sum  by  this  means.  S.  E.  Sewaxl.* 

P.  S.  We  hope  to  raise  a  fund  of  $10,000  for  your  family,  and  I 
think  from  what  has  already  been  done,  the  amount  cannot  fall  much 
short  of  that  sum. 

FROM  A  FRIEND  IN  SYRACUSE. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  Nov.  26. 

Captain  John  Brown,  thou  Friend  of  God  and  Man :  Will  you  allow 
a  line  from  me  to  mingle  with  the  thousands  of  expressions  of  sympa- 
thy that  reach  you  in  your  prison  house  ?  But  my  words  are  feeble 
thmgs,  when  God  is  so  manifestly  with  you.  His  presence  and  the 
consolations  of  His  grace  are  richer  and  far  better  than  all  I  possess, 
or  can  impart.  I  have  long  loved  you  for  your  works'  sake ;  for  you 
have  shown  yourself  a  man.  Be  of  good  courage,  and  our  Father  in 
Heaven  will  sustain  you  and  make  you  conqueror  "through  Him  who 
loveth  us  and  gave  Himself  for  us." 

I  am  the  possessor  of  a  single  hair  from  the  head  of  the  immortal 
Clarkson,  presented  me,  some  years  ago,  by  your  friend  and  mine, 
Mrs.  Geritt  Smith.  I  value  it  very  highly.  My  desire  is,  that  you 
may  send  me  by  mail,  accompanying  your  own  handwriting,  a  lock 
from  your  own  head,  and  I  will  make  many  of  your  friends  partners 
in  its  possession. 

*  See  John  Brown's  reply  —  "Public  Life,"  p.  S64. 

34 


398         Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


Tlie  Lord  keep  thee  and  bless  thee.  The  Lord  make  His  face  to  s7iine 
upon  thee,  and  le  gracious  wito  thee.  The  Lord  lift  up  Ilia  countenance 
upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace"  is  the  daily  prayer  of 

Yoiir  sincere  friend  and  brgther,  I.  H.  C. 

"good-by's  letter."* 

November  26th. 

My  Dear  Mr  Brown  i  have  been  Goeing  to  send  you  few  lines 
for  this  last  three  weeks  but  Owing  to  my  work  i  could  not  find  the 
time  as  i  am  a  Poor  Man  and  have  to  work  very  hard  but  i  colld  not 
rest  without  writting  as  a  little  Comfort  to  you  as  a  young  Converi 
on  my  way  to  heaven  i  have  felt  &  shed  tears  for  you  from  the 
bottom  of  my  heart  i  have  thought  of  you  often  in  the  dead  hours 
of  Night  God  bless  you  as  been  my  Prayers  and  lie  will  bless  you 
for  i  expct  you  will  ware  a  bright  crown  in  heaven  yes  Glory  be  to 
God  thare  is  a  Place  Prepared  for  you  in  that  better  &  happy  land 
•whare  we  will  meet  to  part  no  more   God  bless  you  Good  bye. 

FROM  AN  OLD  FRIEND. 
youNGSvii,i.E,  Wabren  Co.,  Penn.,  Nov.  26. 
...  I  have  always  held  you  in  grateful  remembrance,  as  the  best 
friend  I  ever  had,  and  to  -whom  I  owe  every  thing  for  whatever  I  am 
or  may  be ;  for  which  I  shall  always  bear  you  in  mind ;  and  any 
thing  I  can  do  for  any  of  your  family  hereafter,  will  be  most  cheer- 
fully done.  .  .  .  My  wife  sends  her  best  respects  to  you  and  yoiirs ; 
believing  that  your  mind  is  fully  made  up  to  put  your  trust  in  God, 
•who  works  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his  own  will,  and  for  the 
best  possible  good.  Yours  truly, 

James  FoBMAN.f 

FROM  AN  OHIO  CLERGYMAN. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  Nov.  26. 
My  Dear  Christian  Brother :  I  hope  you  will  not  consider  it  imper- 
tinent or  intrusive  in  me  to  write  you.  I  am  only  a  stranger  to  you ; 
but,  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  I  feel  anxious  to  send  you  some  word  of  en- 
couragement and  consolation  at  this  trying  moment  of  your  life,  stand- 
ing as  you  do  under  the  very  shadow  of  approaching  doom.  The  execu- 
tors of  penal  law,  under  which  you  are  held,  manifest  no  disposition 
to  relent  or  mitigate  the  rigors  of  the  penalty  pronounced  upon  you.  I 
therefore  feel  that  in  coming  to  you  by  this  epistle  !  am  intruding  upon 

♦  So  labelled  by  John  Broun, 

t  See  reply— "  Public  Life,"  p.  368. 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  399 


you  in  the  midst  of  reflections  and  solemnities  inconceivably  momen- 
tous and  sacred.  Of  the  brief  and  waning  period  allowed  you  by 
your  captors,  only  sb£  days  now  remain,  and  by  the  time  this  shall 
meet  your  eye  this  meagre  fragment  of  space  will  have  dwindled  to 
hours,  and  the  gloomy  death-pagennt  preparing  to  encircle  your  execu- 
tion will  be  about  ready  for  the  gaze  of  eager  thousands,  whom  sym- 
pathy, curiosity,  or  hatred  will  gather  together.  I  long  to  say  some- 
thing to  you  that  may  in  some  way  breathe  consolation  and  inspire 
fresh  and  holy  outgoingc  of  hope,  courage  and  confidence  in  God. 
And  yet  I  know  God  is  with  you,  and  his  presence  and  favor  are  infi- 
nitely better  and  dearer  than  any  sympathy  and  condolence  of  your 
brethren  in  Christ.  And  yet  I  know  that  a  sad  yet  hopeful,  a  pain- 
ful yet  prayerful,  remembrance  of  you  by  those  who  are  in  spirit  with 
you,  while  widely  separated  from  you,  will  not  be  painful  to  you  nor 
unacceptable  to  God. 

I  most  fervently  pray  that  you  may  find,  through  Divine  Grace, 
that  however  severe  the  trial  that  approaches,  and  however  sad  all 
that  is  now  passing  upon  you  may  be,  according  to  your  day  so  shall 
your  strength  be."  God  exercises  His  government  in  wisdom,  love, 
and  mercy,  and  he  does  and  will  overrule  all  things  for  His  glory  and 
the  final  good  and  salvation  of  all  that  put  their  trust  in  Him.  Fear 
not;  God  will  gird  thee  with  strength,  and  give  a  meetness  and  a 
divine  readiness  for  your  great  trials ;  and  may  he  turn  your  captivity 
and  death,  if  you  must  die,  to  His  glory  and  the  final  deliverance  • 
of  all  the  oppressed  of  this  land.  Faithful  is  He  that  hath  called 
you,  who  also  will  do  it." 

The  events  that  have  been  brought  about  recently  through  your 
agency  have  convulsed  the  nation,  and  stirred  the  popular  heart  to 
its  utmost  depth,  and  the  minions  of  oppression  have  been  made  to 
quake  with  fear.  What  is  to  be  the  result  God  only  knows,  bu*  this, 
I  think,  is  already  apparent,  the  came  of  Freedom  is  immea'  oi-ably 
stronger  than  it  was  before  you  struck  your  blow  at  Harper'^,  Ferry, 
and  were  permitted  to  stand  forth  a  captive  among  slaveholders  and 
doomed  to  die. 

I  herewith  inclose  you  a  few  lines  y>'  hi  have  penned  almost  in- 
voluntarily upon  one  of  the  most  heioic  sentences  that  have  been 
pronounced  in  modern  times,  which  the  public  prints  record  as  yours. 
This  alone  is  enough  to  give  glory  to  your  captivity ;  and  the  spirit 
that  could  give  utterance  to  it  will  make  your  death  a  triumph,  both 
for  yourself  and  suffering  humanity.  Very  truly  and  sympathetically. 
Your  brother  in  Christ,  B,  K.  M. 

P.  S,    Should  time  and  your  dying  condition  permit,  write  merely 


400        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


enough  to  say  you  have  received  this,  and  send  in  the  enclosed  en- 
velope. Such  a  note  will  be  received  as  a  memento  from  a  dying 
brother  in  Christ,  and  martyr  for  the  cause  of  our  oppressed  fellow- 
men. 

"The  Hoary  Convict." 

"I  do  not  know  that  I  can  better  serve  the  cause  I  lovo  so  mnch  than  by  dying  for 
It"— John  Bbown,  in  prison. 

Brave  man !  whate'er  the  world  may  think  of  thee, 
Howe'er  in  judgment  hold  thy  daring  deeds. 

Men  cannot  fail  in  every  step  to  see 
This  is  no  craven  heart  that  beats  and  bleeds. 

Kind  friends  proclaim  thy  ardent  mind  unstrung  — 

A  maniac  only  heard  the  bondman  sigh ; 
"While  foes  alarmed  have  quivering  curses  flung, 

And  deem  it  mercy  even  to  let  thee  die. 

But  friends  and  foes  to  thee  are  all  the  same, 
Who  drink  not  at  the  fount  where  thou  hast  stood ; 

With  thee  one  thought  has  nursed  the  hidden  flame ; 
Thy  fettered  brother  claims  the  common  blood. 

To  lift  Him  &om  Oppression's  iron  heel 
Became  with  thee  a  purpose,  then  a  cause  ; 

Thy  Ivfe-long  marfnm  was  a  power  to  feel — 
That  gush  of  FEEtiNG  wrote  thy  code  of  laws. 

Thy  abject  brother  doubled  in  thy  sight 

Grew  into  numbers  as  the  vision  rose, 
Tlien  stood  a  nation,  without  power  or  might, 

And  all  their  weakness  plead  against  their  foes. 

The  CAUSE  oy  man  loomed  grandly  on  thy  sight ; 

Man,  crushed  and  feeble,  was  thy  rallying  cry ; 
Its  wail  charmed  strangely  to  the  unequal  fight. 

To  give  them  Freedom,  or  to  bravely  die. 

Hadst  thou  thus  dared  'neath  far  Italia's  sky 
Men  would  have  shouted  paeans  to  thy  name ; 

History  would  dared  her  highest  skill  to  try. 
And  on  a  spotless  page  embalmed  thy  fame. 

But  thou  hast  struck  on  thine  own  country's  plains 
For  hosts  who  crouch  where  shouts  for  Freedom  flow ; 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  401 

Hosts  of  a  dusky  brow,  condemned  to  chains, 
For  wboffi  the  bravest  dared  not  strike  a  blow. 

Men^gpiidge  thee  now  a  felon's  gloomy  cells, 
Aur);  restive,  wail  a  felon's  doom  at  morn ; 

Reproach  loads  every  breeze  that  round  thee  swells, 
And  heaven's  own  light  comes  mixed  with  human  scorn. 

Oppression  hastes  to  drink  thy  flowing  blood. 

And  dip  her  iron  hoof  in  costly  gore ; 
But  right  shall  strengthen  with  the  might  of  God, 

And  thou,  when  slain,  be  mightier  than  before. 

Yon  captive  hosts  shall  rise  from  tears  and  chaius. 
And  kneel  redeemed  at  God's  own  seat  ere  long ; 

Then  thou  shalt  rise,  and  Freedom's  festive  strains 
Shall  give  thy  memory  to  immortal  song. 

Go,  then,  and  die !  thy  scarred,  heroic  form 
And  hoary  locks  may  grace  a  scaffold  high. 

But  thy  loved  Cause  shall  live  beyond  the  storm,  ^ 
And  thou  canst  best  subserve  it  now  to  die ! 

FROM  A  CX,ERGTMAN  OP  RHODE  ISLAND.  / 

Providence,  Bhode  Island,  Nov.  26. 
My  Dear  Sir :  Permit  me,  an  utter  stranger  to  you,  to  intrude  a 
moment,  just  that  I  may  say,  God  bless  you  !  Be  of  good  cheer. 
You  bore  your  witness  against  American  Slavery  with  voice  so  loud 
that  all  the  civilized  world  now  listens,  all  breathless,  to  its  every 
echo.  More  than  this  :  by  that  act  four  million  slaves  have  learned 
with  such  force  of  impression  as  never  was  theirs  before,  that  they 
have  a  right  to  be  free.  Washington,  and  those  with  him,  fought  for 
their  own  homes  and  their  own  liberties  ;  but  you,  with  broader 
benevolence,  having  no  freedom  to  gain  for  yourself,  took  the  swor<4 
in  behalf  of  a  race  oppressed  infinitely  more  than  our  fathers.  I  do 
not  say  that  I  think  it  right  to  appeal  to  arms,  but  I  do  say  that  if  the 
first  was  right,  then  by  logical  necessity,  was  the  second.  It  is  an 
axiom  in  religion  that  the  blood  of  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church. 
Jesus  baptized  his  new  faith  with  his  own  blood.  In  all  age/i  truth 
is  most  advanced  by  those  who  most  suffer  for  it.  Greater  love  hath 
no  man  than  this,  that  he  lay  down  his  life  for  another.  Let  these 
thoughts  console,  you.  I  have  read  your  speeches  and  letters  studi- 
Otisly,  and  from  them  verily  believe  that  you  have  acted  from  alto- 
34* 


402         Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


gether  righteous  motives.  Kemember,  if  you  have  a  truly  honest  and 
prayerful  conscience  towards  God,  He  will  accept  your  intentions.  I 
beseech  you  to  read  His  Word  much,  and  with  all  the  power  of  your 
nature  to  trust  yourself  entirely  to  his  infinite  care.  It  may  perhaps 
somewhat  cheer  you  to  know  that  beyond  question  the  greater  part  of 
the  Christian  world  will  approve  your  intentions.  From  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  hearts  prayer  is  continually  made  for  you.  Posterity  will 
look  upon  you  as  the  Moses  of  the  Americah  bondmen.  Your  name 
will  be  a  watchword  henceforth  for  Treedom.  Coming  ages  will  put 
your  statue  in  high  places,  and  build  glorious  monuments  to  the  honor 
of  your  name.  Ood  be  with  you  now,  and  comfort  you,  and  receive 
you  into  the  glorimir,  company  of  confessors  and  martyrs  above. 

Yours,  A  Clergyman. 

PROM  A  THEOLOGICAL  AUTHOR. 

Centrai,  Village,  Plainfield,  Cct-v.,  Nov.  27. 
Dear  Friend :  .  .  .  xhe  moral  effect  of  your  bearing  since  your 
capture  seems  to  me  worth  more  than  any  immediate  physical  good 
which  would  follow  your  victory.  I  think  Slavery  at  the  South  and 
every  where  is  weaker  than  it  could  have  been  made  by  the  exodus 
of  a  thousand  slaves  under  your  lead.  I  need  not  explain  the  partic- 
ulars of  this  view  ;  but  there  does  seem  to  me  a  special  providence  in 
your  being  spared  beyond  the  hour  of  your  capture,  to  be  tried  as  you 
have  been,  and  to  appear  loftier  and  braver  than  your  conquerors,  as 
you  have.  It  is  God  that  has  called  and  disciplined  you  for  this,  and  He 
sustains  you,  and  will  sustain  you  to  the  end.  ...  I  shall  probably  be 
at  Hartford  on  Friday  of  this  week,  the  day  appointed  for  the  execution 
of  your  sentence.  That  will  be  far  easier  than  the  execution  of  your- 
self; for  we  believe  your  life  and  heroism  are  not  lost  in  any  death. 
The  Lord  be  with  you  in  your  last  earthly  hours. 

Yours,  for  those  in  bonds,  C.  F.  H. 

FROM  ANOTHER  RHODE  ISLAND  FRIEND. 

Providence,  Rhode  Island,  Nov.  27. 
Dear  Brother :  I  feel  constrained  to  write  a  few  lines  to  you.  I 
have  long  wished  to  write ;  but  fearing  to  do  so,  the  distance  being  so 
very  long,  that  it  would  not  reach  you.  I  have  long  wished  to  hear 
from  you  personally,  to  know  how  you  are  getting  along,  and  how 
your  wounds  are,  and  whether  your  health  is  any  better.  I  take 
tliree  papers,  and  read  them  with  great  interest  to  know  all.  But 
they  say  one  thing  one  day,  and  contradict  them  the  next.  O,  if  I 
could  only  be  with  you,  could  hear  you  and  comfort  you  in  my  «wtt 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  403 


feeble "R'ay  in  this  trying  hour  of  your  confinement !  But  it  cannot 
be.  To  God  I  wish  that  I  could  be  with  you  in  this  hour  of  trial  ! 
O,  that  I  had  the  money  that  is  daily  thrown  away  for  foolishness ! 
I  would  come  to  you,  and  on  bended  knees  ask  permission  to  remain 
with  you.  But,  as  I  said  before,  it  cannot  bo.  But  if  I  am  not  with 
you  in  person,  I  am  with  you  through  the  eye  of  vision,  talking  with 
and  hearing  yo\ir  sad  trial  of  sorrow  and  incarceration.  These  visions 
will  never  be  forgotten  by  me  and  my  family,  as  I  sit  by  my  fireside 
rehearsing  to  them  the  history  of  one  whom  I  shall  ever  remember 
with  a  brother's  love. 

O,  that  I  could  find  words  to  express  myself,  but  my  mind  wanders 
and  my  hand  trembles  so,  that  I  scarce  can  write  !  You  will,  I  hope, 
forgive  my  many  mistakes.  I  write  not  for  fame,  but  from  friend- 
ship's dictation.  O,  if  I  could  compose  myself  to  write  !  But,  as  I 
have  said,  my  miixd  wanders  back  to  things  past  and  gone  —  gone ; 
known  only  in  history's  pages.  "When  I  call  up  things  that  have  been 
done  since  1776,  to  the  present  time,  1859  —  but  enough  of  this.  God 
worketh  all  things  for  his  own  good ;  for  he  is  a  God  of  Justice,  and 
doeth  all  things  well,  and  in  his  own  time.  If  there  is  no  hope  on 
earth,  there  is  hope  in  Heaven.  If  we  meet  not  here,  we  will  meet 
there.  I  trust  in  Him  who  rulcth  all  things.  Call  on  him  and  he  will 
not  see  you  want,  for  He  hath  said  so  in  his  Holy  Word:  "That 
■whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal 
life."  .  .  .  Ever  believe  me. 

Your  sincere  friend  for  suffering  humanity,  F.  G. 

PROM  A  LITTLE  BOY. 

Westfield,  N.  Y.,  November  27. 
Captain  Brown  Dear  Sir,  I  have  been  thinking  of  you  ever  sinse  I 
herd  of  yo\ir  convicton  and  I  have  been  thinking  to  that  you  have  got 
to  die  in  a  very  short  time.  I  hope  that  these  i"ew  lines  may  do  you 
some  good  If  you  ever  receive  theme  I  have  no  more  time  to  wrrite  so 
good  by  till  we  meet  in  heaven 
I  am  a  little  boy  and  this  is  the  First  letter  I  ever  wrote 

George  De  F.  F. 

FROM  AN  OLD  MISSIONARY. 

New  Haven,  Connecticut,  Nov.  28. 
Dear  Sir :  Permit  a  friend  of  liberty  and  eqmtable  law  to  address 
you  a  few  brief  thoughts,  which  I  hope  may  be  acceptable  to  you  and 
your  family.   Prayer  was  yesterday  ofiPered  for  you  in  a  colored  con- 
gregation in  this  city,  to  whom  a  descendant  of  Africa,  a  son  of  Georgia, 


404        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


a  minister  of  Liberia,  and  also  the  writer  of  this  farewell  letter,  preached 
tiie  true  gospel. 

You  may  be  gratified  to  know  that  I  remember  with  interest  your 
interview,  some  two  years  since,  with  the  cordial  friends  of  Kansas  in 
this  city,  while  that  injured  territory  of  our  common  country  was  subject 
to  the  scorpion  lash  prepared  for  the  honest  advocates  of  the  rights  of 
man,  and  especially  of  that  freedom  which  you  struggled  to  establish. 
These,  your  New  Haven  friends,  some  of  whom  so  ably  and  so  kindly 
expostulated  -with  our  Chief  Magistrate  in  reference  to  the  wrongs  of 
Kansas,  remember  you  with  Christian  sympathy  in  yo\u:  present 
euSerings. 

Take  it  to  your  heart  that  a  God  of  Justice  and  of  Mercy  rules,  and 
the  Deliverer  of  Israel  from  their  bondage  in  Qoshen,  has  mercy  in 
Store  for  a  greater  number  of  bondmen  and  bondwomen,  truly  as 
wrongfully  oppressed.  He  has  not  granted  you  the  full  measure  of 
your  wishes,  but  he  has  allowed  you  the  opportunity  of  conspicuously 
and  emphatically  showing  your  sympathy  for  the  injured  Slave  popu- 
lation of  our  otherwise  happy  country,  and  of  preaching  the  duty  of 
giving  "  them  that  which  is  just  and  equal." 

Forty  years  ago  I  went  among  the  savages  of  Polynesia,  and  preached 
the  gospel  of  Him  whose  office  it  was  to  proclaim  liberty  to  captives.  I 
plainly  taught  kings  and  queens,  chiefs  and  warriors,  that  He  that 
ruleth  men  must  be  just,  ruling  in  the  fear  of  God.  I  freely  exhibited 
the  opposition  of  God's  law  and  our  Saviour's  gospel  to  oppression 
and  every  sin  foimd  to  be  prevailing  there,  and  aided  my  associates  in 
giving  them  the  entire  Bible  in  their  own  language,  and  in  teaching 
their  tribes  to  read  it  and  use  it  freely  in  all  the  ranks  of  life. 

Though  I  labored  with  them  a  score  of  years,  and  have  corresponded 
with  them  a  score  of  years  more,  I  have  not,  lest  I  shoiild  damage  my 
mission,  ever  told  them  that  I  belonged  to  a  nation  that  deprives  three 
or  four  millions  of  their  fellow-subjects  of  Jehovah's  Government,  of 
their  dearest  rights  which  God  has  given  them  —  one  of  which  is  the 
free  use  of  his  own  Holy  Book. 

But  when  the  story  of  your  execution  shall  reach  and  siu'prise  them, 
I  will  no  longer  hesitate  to  speak  to  ir.y  friends  there  of  your  sympathy 
for  four  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  Southern  States,  held  in 
tmchristian  bonds  in  the  only  Protestant  country  on  the  globe  that 
endorses  Slavery. 

I  con,  next  week,  well  aSbrd  to  endeavor  to  give  them  an  echo  of 
that  protest  against  the  whole  system  of  American  Slavery,  which  on 
and  from  the  day  of  your  execution,  will  be  louder  in  the  ear  of  High 
Heaven  than  its  abettors  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  *,  rising  tVom. 


Letters  .from  Northern  Men.  405 


the  millions  of  freenven  in  this  noble  cordon  of  Free  States,  and  other 
millions  of  now  slaveholding  fteemen,  and  some  slaveholders  them- 
selves, in  the  Slave  States. 

Have  you  a  kind  message  to  send  to  the  Christian  converts  at  the 
Sandwich  Islands,  or  to  the  heathen  of  Micronesia,  a  month's  sail  be- 
yond, where  my  son  and  daughter  are  laboring  to  give  them  the  Bible 
and  the  richest  blessings  of  Christianity  ?  I  would  gladly  forward  it 
to  them  if  you  have  time  to  WTite  it. 

And  now,  dear  sir,  trust  in  your  gracious  Saviour ;  forgive  those 
that  have  trespassed  against  you ;  leave  your  fatherless  children,  God 
will  provide  for  them,  and  tell  yoiir  widow  to  trust  in  Him,  in  His 
holy  habitation.  «•  The  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered,"  and 
not  onp  shall  fall  to  the  ground  without  your  Heavenly  Father." 
Should  a  lock  of  your  hair  fall  into  my  lap  before  the  execution  shall 
help  you  to  shake  the  pillars  of  the  idol's  temple,  it  would  be  valued. 
The  Lord  bless  you,  and  make  your  life  and  death  a  blessing  to  the 
oppressed  and  their  oppressors.   Farewell ! 

Yours  faithfully,  H.  B. 

FROM  AN  OLD  MAN  OF  BOSTON. 

Boston,  Nov.  24. 

My  Dear  Brother  John  Brown :  I  am  an  old  man.  I  have,  for  more 
than  thirty  years  opposed  Slavery  in  all  its  forms ;  though  never  with 
violence !  I  deeply  sympathize  with  you  in  your  present  position, 
and  commend  you  to  that  Jesus  who  preached,  what  Isaiah  proclaimed, 
seven  hundred  years  before  his  advent.  God  forbid  that  I  should  cen- 
sure you  for  acting  «'  deliverance  to  the  captive,"  when  it  has  the  sanc- 
tion of  this  double,  inspiration."  My  brother,  I  respect  and  love  you 
beyond  expression.^  I  have  now  a  letter  from  my  brother,  now,  I  trust, 
in  heaven.  It  was  written  in  prison  at  Baltimore,  by  one  whose  life 
was  sacrificed  to  Slavery's  demand. 

It  tells  me  what  I  believe  is  true,  that  during  the  last  few  years  of 
his  life,  he  gave  liberty  to  more  than /ottr  hundred  slaves.  I  have  taken 
slaveholders  to  his  monument  in  Moimt  Auburn,  where  the  enduring 
marble  tells  that  Chakles  Turner  Tobuey,  in  the  early  meridian  of 
his  life,  was  a  martyr  to  Freedom.  If  you  can  find  it  possible  to  write 
me  the  smallest  line,  that  I  may  place  ut  its  side,  to  bequeath  to  my 
children  as  a  most  valued  legacy,  you  cannot  tell  how  much  I  should 
value  it.  They  are  all  Christians  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  word ; 
their  abhorrence  of  Slavery  is  unquestioned.  I  have  known  you  and 
your  sons,  and  have  had  the  pleasure  of  taking  your  honest  hand  iu 
mine.  Yours  in  Christ,  J.  N.  B. 

That  I  may  be  under  no  obligation  to  Virginia,  1  enclose  a  ten  cent 
stamp  to  pay  for  the  paper  you  may  use. 


4o6        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


FROM  FRIENDS  IN  NEW  TORE. 

Ilion,  New  York,  November  24. 
Dear  Brother  in  Christ :  How  I  would  like  to  spend  this  night  with 
you  in  your  cell,  and  converse  for  a  season  on  the  joys  that  await  you 
beyond  this  world  of  sin  and  sorrow.  I  have  tried  to  spend  this  day 
in  prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  the  many  blessings 
received  at  His  hand  the  past  year,  but  in  spite  of  all  my  eflForts  in 
this  direction,  it  has  been  a  sorrowful, day  to  my  soul,  as  my  mind  has 
dwelt  almost  constantly  on  your  death  scene.  I  cannot  be  joyful ;  I 
mourn  not  so  much  for  you,  (for,  like  the  hero  of  Tarsus,  you  seem 
ready  to  be  offered,)  but  I  mourn  for  my  coimtry.  I  spent  the  past 
winter  in  the  South,  spending  four  months  in  nine  of  the  slave  States ; 
and  more  than  once  I  had  to  press  my  lips  and  clinch  my  fists,  to 
keep  back  the  feelings  of  my  soul. ,  I  saw  Slavery  in  all  its  phases, 
and  many  a  night  I  have  wet  my  pillow  with  my  tears,  as  I  called  to 
mind  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  slave.  I  had  hard  work  to  control  my 
feelings,  but  did  so,  and  cannot  think  but  it  was  the  best  course. 
Among  the  slaveholders  I  found  some  of  the  noblest  men  I  ever  met 
with  —  kind,  obliging,  hospitable,  pious,  and  to  all  appearances  with- 
out a  fault ;  so  I  returned  to  my  home  to  hate  the  sin  and  not  the 
men.  I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Gov.  Wise,  and  found  that  it  was 
not  Wise  that  killed  Cilley ;  it  was  not  Wise  that  fought  for  Slavery 
at  the  South ;  it  was  his  education  —  for  a  nobler  lieart  never  filled 
the  breast  of  man  ;  and  had  he  been  favored  with  a  birthplace  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Champ  Iain,  and  a  home  among  the  Adirondack  moun- 
tains, he  might  have  been  your  general  in  this  conflict,  and  lying 
wovmded  by  your  side  to  night.*  Would  to  God  these  brethren  could 
read  our  hearts^  O,  could  they  see  how  we  love  them ;  how  we  de- 
sire their  present  and  future  happiness ;  what  a  change  would  at  once 
take  place  in  their  feelings  towards  us.   Did  Gov.  Wise  know  Christ 

*  What  miserable  cant!  "Pious"  trafBcars  ia  God's  children ;  "pious  "  robbers  of 
God's  poor;  " pious "  brolters  in  the  souls  for  whom  Jesus  died!  "Kind,  obi ipiug, 
hospitable ! "  No  doubt  of  it !  To  compel  men  and  women  to  work  without  reward, 
is«oUind;  to  barter  for  bnse  gold  the  ofTspringof  slave  mothers,  is  lo  obliging;  to 
rob  A  race  of  every  social,  civil,  political,  matrimonial,  patei-nal,  filial  right,  is  so 
hospitable  an  act,  that  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  claFs  who  practise  it  should  bo  "  to 
nil  appearance  without  a  fault  1 "  And  Wise,  the assiissin  of  Cilley,  the  representative 
murderer  of  John  Brown,  the  laudator  of  the  Slave  Pens,  the  acknowledged  head  nnd 
champion  of  the  vilest  Commonwealth  tha.t  the  sun  looks  down  on,  of  course,  fie  de- 
serves the  eulogy  bestowed  on  him,  when  the  writer  eays,  that  a  "nobler  heart  never 
filled  the  breast  of  man,"  There  are  no  murderers,  there  are  no  assassins,  there  are 
no  base,  nor  cowardly,  nor  wicked  men,  if  the  philosophy  of  the  writer  bo  correct.  It 
was  not  Judos,  then,  but  Judas's  education? 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  407 


as  did  Paul  when  soundly  converted,  there  would  not  be  power  enough 
in  all  the  military  force  of  Virginia  to  hang  John  Brown.  But  enough 
of  this. 

I  have  never  believed  that  Virginia,  for  her  own  honor,  would  hang 
you ;  but  she  may,  (my  heart  is  too  full,  my  tears  flow  too  fast  to 
write,)  if  she  does,  such  a  funeral  as  the  sun  never  saw  before,  will 
follow. 

Keep  up  good  courage ;  a  few  more  rismg  and  setting  suns,  and 
the  struggle  will  be  over ;  and  the  thrice  welcome  words  will  reach 
your  ears,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  pre- 
pared for  you." 

I  have  been  a  resident  of  Washington  County  for  thirty-eight  years ; 
left  Fort  Edward,  New  York,  May,  1858,  and  am  sure  I  have  met  you, 
but  cannot  tell  where  ;  but  if  faithful  to  the  grace  already  given,  I  am 
sure  I  shall  meet  you  again,  and  I  ktiow  where.  Praise  the  Lord,  on 
that  blissful  shore,  where  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling-  and  the 
weary  are  forever  at  rest.  You  will  not  be  permitted,  like  Moses, 
to  return  after  forty  years  to  engage  afresh  in  the  struggle  for  free- 
dom :  but  God  will  raise  up  others,  in  his  own  good  time,  to  carry 
forward  the  work. 

Farewell,  till  v;e  meet  in  Heaven ;  for,  when  we  reach  the  landing 
place,  — 

"  Id  the  realms  of  endless  light 

We'll  bid  this  world  of  noise  and  show 
Good  night,  good  night,  good  uight; 
We'll  stein  the  storm,"  &c. 

Your  unworthy  friend  and  brother  in  the  Lord, 

J.  M.  B. 

ELLENVII.LE,  New  York,  Nov.  25. 
Dear  Brother  :  "We  are  personally  strangers,  but  we  cherish  for  God 
and  Humanity  the  same  love  and  trust.  Permit  me,  then,  a  brother 
in  bonds  with  the  bound,  to  extend  to  you  my  Christian  sympathy  and 
prayer  in  this  hour  of  your  trial.  Be  assured,  my  dear  brother,  that 
the  heart  of  the  nation  is  with  you ;  that  whatever  the  difference  in  the 
mode  of  our  operation,  our  purpose,  "to  break  every  fetter,"  is  the 
same.  I  am  grateful .  that  God  and  your  own  heart  sustain  you  in 
your  journey  "  Home.".  You  and  I  do  "  worship  the  same  God,"  — 
the  God  of  righteousness  and  justice,  who  weigheth  motives ;  and 
though  acts  are  defeated,  will  not  fail  to  reward  good  intentions.  I 
trust  there  is  upon  your  mind  no  doubt  of  your  acceptance  with  God 
through  the  merits  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  little  I  have  read 
of  your  confident  avowal  of  the  Divine  Mercy  towards  you,  cheer  me 


4o8        Letters  from  Northern  Men.« 


with  the  hope  that  though  men  kill  the  body,  God  -will  nourish  the 
spirit  —  the  man  —  under  His  own  pavilion  of  light  forever. 

I  trust  you  will  esteem  it  no  reproach  that  wicked  men  plot  against 
you,  and  put  you  to  death  on  the  gibbet.  The  gibbet,  and  the  cross, 
and  the  fagot,  have  often  been  honored  by  men  of  whom  the  world 
•was  not  worthy.  Had  you  been  successful,  men  would  have  called 
you  a  hero  ;  but  because  defeated — I  forbear  the  rest.  My  heart  sick- 
ens at  the  thought  that  conscience,  and  divine  trust,  and  self-sacrific- 
ing benevolence  must  lie  in  a  cell  and  await  a  cruel  death.  But  wo 
now  build  monuments  for  those  whom  others  murdered,  and  God 
shall  yet  build  yours,  not  perhaps  in  bronze  or  marble  shaft,  but  in  a 
nation  of  free  and  happy  men,  who  shall  rise  up  and  call  you  the 
Moses  of  their  Redemption.  You  need  not  fear  that  yova  family  will 
suffer  want ;  God  and  the  good  will  succor  them.  And  now,  my  dear 
brother,  will  you  not  indulge  me  with  at  least  a  short  reply,  I  shall 
cherish  it  long,  and  gather  inspiration  from  its  sight  for  other  conflicts 
in  behalf  of  religion  and  liberty.  I  too  have  a  family  of  children,  and 
I  desire  that  they  should  live  for  the  oppressed ;  and,  if  such  is  God's 
will,  die  fighting  their  battles.  I  will  surely  swear  them  at  God's 
altar  to  eternal  hatred  of  American  and  every  other  Slavery.  I  shall 
pray  fervently  every  day  until  you  depart,  that  God  may  be  with  you 
and  comfort  you.  .  .  . 

I  am  very  sincerely  yo\ir  brother  in  the  cause  of  religion  and  right, 

J.  P. 

Pastor  of  the  M.  E.  Church,  Ellenville,  Ulster  Co.,  N.  Y. 

New  York,  November  25. 
My  Dear  Friend :  I  rejoice  in  the  strength  and  courage  vouchsafed 
to  you  in  your  present  emergency.  Our  good  Father  is  on  your 
Bide,  and  this  fact  place  you  in  the  majorittj.  Good  men,  every 
where,  will  ever  revere  your  name.  Unselfish  integrity  has  made 
that  name  immortal.  .  .  .  God  bless  you '. 

Farewell,  N.  S. 

New  York,  November  26,  1859. 
Dear  Sir :  "Will  you  favor  me  with  your  autograph,  which  I  will 
highly  prize  as  the  best  memento  of  one  who  is  about  to  sacrifice  his 
life  in  a  great  and  noble  cause.  Pardon  my  intrusion  upon  your  last 
moments  for  that  which  may  seem  to  you  of  little  moment  or  conse- 
quence ;  but  I  assure  you  that  it  will  be  ever  retained  by  me  with  that 
respect  which  is  due  the  name  of  a  man  who  makes  so  great  a  sacrifice. 
May  He  who  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  guide  and  sustain  you  in 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  409 


these  the  Jast  moments  of  your  existence,  and  safely  lead  you  to  that 
home  which  awaits  you,  —  is  the  humble  prayer  of  your  obedient 
servant,  E.  T. 

New  York,  Thursday,  November  24. 
My  Dear  Friend :  The  writer  of  this  letter  to  you  may  be  person- 
ally unknown,  but  is  a  deep  sympathizer,  in  conn.iction  with  thou- 
sands of  others,  whose  hearts  are  engaged  in  prayer  for  you  and  your 
fellow  prisoners,  who  are  now  under  sentence  of  death  in  the  prison 
of  Virginia,  for  entertaining  the  principles  of  Freedom  and  Liberty  to 
the  captive  in  bonds,  as  though  in  bonds  with  him.  Your  cause  is  a 
good  one.  Bear  up,  brave  warrior  !  under  the  approaching  trial  and 
the  day  that  you  will  be  called  upon  to  seal  the  truth  with  your 
blood !  These  are  the  days  that  try  men's  soiols,  and  are  like  the  days 
of  old  in  which  the  martyrs  fought,  bled,  and  died.  No  doubt  but  on 
the  day  of  execution,  millions  of  prayers  will  be  oflPered  up  to  the  God 
of  Heaven  and  earth  in  your  behalf,  from  Christian  hearts,  who  feel 
with  you  and  for  you ;  and  of  this  you  may  have  the  fullest  assurance 
in  the  hour  of  trial. 

Fjver  yoiurs  in  truth  and  friendship,  L.  "W.  T. . 

PROM  A  "LOVER  OP  JUSTICE." 

Philadelphia,  November  29. 
Dear  Sir :  Feeling  a  true,  and  I  trust,  a  sincere  sympathy  for  your 
being  under  bonds,  and  with  desire  your  punishment  may  be  com- 
muted to  imprisonment,  and  that  thereby  your  life  may  be  spared,  I 
have  implored  his  Excellency  Gov.  Wise  in  your  behalf  several  times, 
and  I  trust  it  may  be  done.  My  dear  old  man,  I  have  no  doubt  you 
have  acted  agreeably  to  what  you  considered  a  duty ;  but  sound  sense 
and  the  law  of  the  land,  show  evidently  you  acted  wrong,  and  have 
been  guilty  of  a  great  folly  in  judgment,  and  I  trust  those  who  may 
have  the  power  will  think  so,  —  that  it  was  an  error  of  judgment  and 
not  of  principle ;  and  that  they  may  be  influenced  by  a  principle  of 
mercy,  instilled  by  Him  who  is  the  author  of  all  good,  to  show  you 
and  those  who  are  with  you  mercy,  and  thereby  allay,  in  a  great 
measure,  the  hostile  feelings  in  the  North,  that  your  execution  will 
produce.  If  you  have  to  suffer  this  severe  penalty,  you  will  be  for- 
ever immortalized  as  a  true  martyr  of  Liberty,  and  be  the  cause  with- 
out doubt  of  laying  a  foundation  stone  of  the  Liberty  party  of  the 
North,  South,  East,  and  West,  that  will  not  rest  until  the  fabric  of 
the  Institution  of  Slavery  shall  be  shaken  unto  its  foundations.  But 
it  must  be  done  constitutionally,  and  not  by  violence  —  that  would 
produce  a  greater  evil  than  the  one  you  attempted  to  eradicate,  pro- 

3p 


410        Letters  from  Northern  Men. 


ducing  bloodshed  and  revolution,  and  all  its  horroTa ;  ^d  it  vronld  be 
■  trampling  upon  the  rights  of  your  fellow-citizens,  as  you  did.  It  is  a 
•work  of  time.  God  in  his  own  time  will  bring  it  about ;  fear  not.  I 
sincerely  trust  your  life  may  be  spared.  If  not,  trust  in  the  loving 
power,  of  God  Almighty,  and  He  will  sustain  you  and  give  you  a  seat 
among  the  righteous  martyrs  who  have  gone  before  you.  Your  fam- 
ily, no  doubt,  wil'  be  well  taken  care  of,  and  may  the  Lord  in  His 
Infinite  Mercy  be  with  you  in  life  or  death,  is  my  most  earnest  prayer. 
You  are  generally  believed  to  be  an  honest  and  upright  man,  but  a 
very  deluded  one  on  the  subject  of  Slavery ;  and  it  being  a  delusion 
of  judgment  and  not  of  principles,  I  pray  you  may  have  mercy  ex- 
tended to  you  and  your  associates. 

Yours  truly,  A  Loteb  or  Justice. 

Needs  no  reply,"  is  the  comment  written  on  this  letter  by  John 
Brown  himself. 

FROM  MARCUS  SPRING. 
To  John  Brown.  £Aoi.£Swoon,  Nov.  28,  1859. 

My  Dear  and  Venerated  Sir :  Ever  since  my  dear  w''''^  and  son's 
visit  of  sympathy  to  you,  and  your  excellent  wife's  short  sojourn  with 
us,  I  have  felt  a  strong  desire  to  write  to  yon  some  words  of  cheering 
and  strengthening  sympathy.  But  I  could  say  nothing,  of  this  kind, 
that  is  not  better  said  in  the  two  hymns  I  here  send  you,  which  have 
been  blessings  to  me,  and  many  others,  in  times  of  trial. 

With  the  most  earnest  wish  and  prayer  that  God  may  be  with  you 
to  the  last,  and  that  in  surrendering  your  life  as  an  offering  in  behalf 
of  the  oppressed,  you  may  also  be  enabled  to  feel,  towards  all  who 
have  misiufderstocd  you,  "Father  forgive  them, for  they  know  not 
what  they  do,"  and  »« incline  the  hearts  of  this  people  to  do  jttstlt/,  love 
mercy,  and  tcalk  humbly  hefore  God,"  as  the  only  course  of  true  safety^ 
and  solid  ■RsXiaa.iA  prosperity  and  peace, 

I  remain,  sincerely  your  friend,  ^Iabcvs  Sfbino. 

<  COTJBAOE  AND  HoTE. 

Awake,  our  souls ;  away  our  fears ; 

Let  every  trembling  thought  be  gone ; 
Awake,  and  run  the  heavenly  race, 

And  put  a  cheerful  courage  on. 

True  'tis  a  strait  and  thorny  road, 

Aiid  mortal  spirits  tire  and  faint ; 
But  they  forget  the  mighty  God, 

"Who  feeds  the  strength  of  every  saint ; 


Letters  from  Northern  Men.  411 


The  mighty  God,  whose  boundless  power 

Is  ever  new  and  ever  young, 
And  firm  endures,  while  countless  years 

Their  everlasting  circles  run. 

From  Thee,  the  overflowing  spring, 
My  soul  shall  drink  a  fresh  supply ; 

While  such  as  trust  their  native  strength, 
Shall  melt  away  and  droop  and  die. 

Swift  as  an  eagle  cuts  the  air. 

We'll  mount  aloft  to  thine  abode ; 
On  wings  of  love  our  souls  shall  fly. 

Nor  tire  amidst  the  heavenly  road. 

Watt8. 

••Neauee,  my  God,  to  Thee." 

Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  nearer  to  Thee ! 
E'en  though  it  be  a  cross  that  raiseth  me : 
Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 

*'  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  —  nearer  to  Thee." 

Though  like  the  wanderer,  the  sun  gone  down, 
Darkness  be  over  me,  my  rest  a  stone ; 
Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
♦•Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  —  nearer  to  Thee." 

There  let  the  way  appear  steps  unto  heaven  ; 
All  that  thou  sendest  me  in  mercy  given ; 
Angels  to  beckon  me 

"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  — nearer  to  Thee." 

Then  with  my  waking  thoughts  bright  with  thy  praise, 
Out  of  my  stony  griefs  Bethel  I'll  raise : 
So  by  my  woes  to  be 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  —  nearer  to  Thee." 

Or,  if  on  joyful  wing,  cleaving  the  sky. 
Sun,  moon,  and  stars  forgot,  upward  I  fly. 
Still  all  my  song  shall  be, 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,  —nearer  to  Thee." 

S.  F.  AoAua. 


II. 


Letters  from  Nokthern  Women. 

FROM  these  letters  of  Northern  women  I  have  omitted  sack 
passages  only  as  I  suppose  the  writers  would  not  wish 
to  see  published.    Requests  for  autographs  and  locks  of  havi 
abound  in  all  the  letters ;  but,  for  sufficient  reasons,  I  have 
^stricken  most  of  them  out. 

FROM  A  MASSACHUSETTS  MATRON. 

[Massachusetts,]  Nov.  8. 
Dear  and  Honored  Friend :  At  last  my  bonds  are  loosed,  and  I  can 
write  you  a  word  of  love  and  helping.  Comfort  and  cheer  you  have 
from  obedience  to  that  eternal  law  of  right  God  stamped  in  such  liv- 
ing characters  upon  your  soul  when  he  sent  it  forth  to  do  its  work 
among  the  children  of  men.  Your  sublime  allegiance  to  truth  is  our 
comfort  and  cheer  in  this  sharp  trial.  Through  much  and  sore  anguish  I 
have  come  to  look  upon  the  second  of  December  as  the  glorious  birth- 
day of  one  whom  all  men  will  delight  to  honor  when  the  mists  of  sin 
and  selfishness  shall  have  rolled  away  forever  from  their  eyes.  Dear, 
brave  old  friend,  you  can  never  die !  The  gallows  seems  no  longer  a 
degradation,  since  your  example  has  so  hallowed  and  glorified  it !  For 
the  Truth's  sake  I  can  let  you  die ;  but  for  our  affection's  sake  we 
would  put  our  arms  around  you  and  hold  you  here  forever,  "iou 
are  constantly  in  our  minds  by  day  and  by  night.  I  cannot  tell  you 
what  we  all  suffered  the  few  first  days ;  and  had  I  not  been  confined 
to  a  sick  bed,  I  think  I  should  have  found  my  way  to  that  Virginia 
prison.  God  bless  you  forever  for  your  faithfulness  to  a  great  prin- 
ciple. Justice,  truth,  and  immortality  seem  the  only  realities  when 
contemplated  from  the  heights  you  have  achieved.  I  will  try  to  be  a 
35'  («3) 


414       Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


braver  and  truer  woman  and  mother  (albeit  a  sadder)  for  the  lesson 
you  have  taught.  Your  name  shall  be  a  cherished  household  word ; 
and  as  long  as  we  live  your  Heavenly  Birthday  shall  be  kept  in  our 
hearts  and  home. 

"Pace  in  thy  cell,  old  Socrates, 

Cheerily  to  and  fro ; 
Trust  to  the  impulse  of  thy  soul 

And  let  the  poison  flow; 
They  may  shatter  to  earth  the  lamp  of  clay 

That  holds  a  light  divine, 
But  they  cannot  quench  the  iire  of  thought 

By  any  such  deadly  wine ; 
They  cannot  blot  thy  spoken  word 

From  the  memory  of  man, 
By  all  the  poison  ever  was  brewed 

Since  time  its  course  bejptn ; 
To-day  abhorred,  to-morrow  adored ; 

So  round  and  round  we  ran  ; 
And  ever  the  truth  comes  uppermost, 

And  ever  is  justice  done." 

My  little  son  Henry  sends  you  his  love,  and  says  he  -vnH  never  for- 
get you. 

And  now,  dear,  brave  old  friend,  farewell.  «« A  little  while  and  we 
shall  not  see  you,  because  you  go  unto  the  Father.  And  again,  a  little 
while  and  we  shall  see  you,  because  we,  too,  go  unto  the  Father." 
May  the  blessed  God  reveal  to  you  more  and  more  of  His  Divine 
Spirit  until  <•  mortality  is  swalloM'ed  up  of  life." 

Your  friend  with  enduring  love  and  reverence, 

M.  E.  S. 

FROM  A  CONNECTICUT  MOTHER. 

Norwich,  Connecticut.  [No  Date.] 
Although  I  am  personally  tmknown  to  you,  yet  I  have  a  strong 
regard  for  such  a  noble  old  man  as  you  have  proved  yourself  to  be. 
May  the  God  of  peace  and  truth  be  with  you  and  your  companions 
in  this  world  and  the  one  to  come.  Although  man  has  said  you 
must  die  at  such  a  time,  trust  in  God,  for  he  may  yet  deliver  thee ; 
for  with  Him  nothing  is  impossible.  But  if  you  die,  may  the  God  in 
which  you  so  sincerely  trust,  help  you  to  remain  true  and  firm  until 
the  last.  You  have  many  friends  who  deeply  sympathize  with  you 
and  your  noble  wife.  May  she  still  have  the  consolation  to  know  that 
if  you  die,  it  is  not  for  wrong,  but  for  right,  which  we  should  all  fol- 
low, even  if  we  suffer  for  it.  .  .  . 

M.  E.  H. 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  415 


FROM  A  QUAKERESS. 

[No  Date.] 

Dear  Friend :  A  few  humble  believers,  some  of  whom  have  been 
fiisting  and  praying  for  thee  and  thy  fellow-prisoners,  desire  that  ye 
should  know  that  ye  are  thus  remembered.  He  who  searches  the 
heart  can  make  known  the  fulness  of  what  we  feel  but  forbear  to 
express.  Dear  Mend,  if  thou  knowest  the  way  of  life,  thou  hast  help 
the  world  knows  not  of;  but  if  thou  hast  never  known  Him  whom  to 
know  aright  is  life  eternal,  we  entreat  thee  in  tender  love  to  look  to 
Him  in  this  hour  of  need.  Bead  the  46th  Psalm  and  the  14th  Chapter 
of  St.  John.  Pour  out  thy  supplications  to  thy  Bedeemer :  He  hath 
His  loving  eyes  upon  you  there ;  His  ear  will  be  specially  open  to  thy 
cry  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  It  is  Christ  alone  on  whom  we  can  rest. 
Be  instant  in  prayer,  remembering  that  the  true  Church  is  wrestliiig 
with  thee.  We  have  fear  lest,  &om  the  bravery  and  magnanimity  of 
thy  spirit,  thou  shouldst  not  be  sensible  where  thy  strength  lieth,  as  we 
poor  weaker  ones  are,  and  have  therefore  affectionately  entreated  thee 
to  keep  very  near  in  dependence  on  thy  Divine  Bedeemer.  We  hope 
the  rest  of  thy  prisoners  may  see  this  letter,  for  we  would  point  them 
all  to  the  only  refuge.  O  friends,  look  to  your  Bedeemer  in  supplica- 
,tion,  and  thus  draw  do^vn  by  prayer  His  loving  kindness  unto  your 
wounded  hearts.  We  pray  for  you,  but  you  mxist  pray  for  yourselves. 
We  will  also  do  what  we  can  for  your  femily  if  they  need. 

FROM  AN  OHIO  WOMAN. 

Decatur,  Brown  County,  Ohio,  Nov.  16. 
Dear  Sir :  Can  you  give  me  a  minute  of  your  time  ?  Like  Mre. 
Child,  who  "  can  scarcely  take  comfort  in  any  thing"  on  your  account, 
for  a  time  I  could  not  well  attend  to  my  work,  but  only  wanted  to  sit 
down,  lean  my  head  upon  my  hand,  and  remain  thus  in  the  palsy  that 
had  come  upon  me.  My  mental  and  moral  nature  seemed  paralyzed 
with  the  thoughts  that  the  self-evident  impossibility  that  man  cotild 
own  man  seemed  to  be  true  ;  and  when  one  arose  to  rescue  his 
brother,  following  only  the  instincts  of  right,  and  the  teachings  of  the 
golden  rule,  that  there  should  be  power  upon  earth  la^vfully  to  put 
him  to  death.  In  listless  moments  tears  have  welled  up  and  offered 
themselves,  but  no  sooner  is  nature  conscious  of  them  than  they  come 
no  farther.  The  subject  is  too  great.  Tears  can  express  nothing  of 
what  the  soul  feels  under  some  contemplations.  Believing  myself  in. 
conscience  boimd  to  give  heed  to  the  views  of  others  (as  H.  W. 
Beecher)  about  the  best  mode  of  enfranchising  the  slave,  and  wonder- 
ing if  the  slave  could  have  sunk  so  low  in  his  degradation  that  he 


4i6      Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


would  not  have  been  -willing  to  accept  your  boon,  had  it  pvovcd  to  be 
in  ■your"  power  to  give  it  to  him,  —  such  considerations  diverted  my 
.thotxghts  and  relieved  somewhat  the  oppression  of  my  mind.  I  sap. 
pose  thousands  upon  tens  of  thousands  feel  the  same  kindness  and 
admiration  that  is  felt  for  you  here.  I  wish  they  would  write  and  say 
so  to  you,  instead  of  telling  all  to  each  other.  But,  perhaps,  they  do 
not  think  of  that ;  or  they  may  be  afraid.  Our  minister  prays  for 
you  in  our  pulpit;  and  I  have  sometimes  felt  that  it  might  do  you 
good  to  hear  such  prayers  as  he  puts  up  for  you,  and  those  who  s\iffer 
■with  you.  I  have  been  watching  for  it,  and  am  so  glad  the  channel 
has  been  opened  through  which  "  the  sympathies  of  others  can  most 
cuccessfuUy  reach  you,"  (though  my  own  contribution  must  at  present 
be  small,)  for  it  is  such  a  comforfe  to  do  any  thing  for  you ;  and  per- 
sonally you  seem  to  need  so  little  of  any  thing  that  we  can  do.  I 
suppose  martyrs  that  are  called  forth  by  the  sins  of  a  lost  world  have 
that  greatness  of  soul,  of  benevolence,  that  needs  not  so  much  the 
sjTnpathies  and  consolations  called  forth  by  affliction.  Although  they 
may  shed  nature's  tears  of  love  and  affection  with  friends  most  dear, 
yet  it  seems  to  me  the  souls  of  those  friends  themselves  must  retire 
again  to  a  depth  or  an  elevation  beyond  the  region  of  tears.  You 
perhaps  do  not  know  what  a  comfort  it  is  to  your  thousands  of  friends, 
and  will  be,  especially  as  the  time  of  death  draws  near,  and  3vhen  it  is 
past,  that  you  have  left  this  statement :  "lam  qztite  cheerful  tender  all 
my  afflicting  circumstances  and  prospects,  havintj,  as  I  Jnimbli/  trust,  the 
peace  of  God  tchich  passeth  understanding."  And  now,  noble  old  man, 
— noble  from  our  point  of  view,  though  in  God's  sight  but  a  pardoned 
and  unprofitable  servant,  —  that  our  Father  awaits  you  is  the  hope  of 
one  who,  /  humbly  trust,  is  your  friend  in  Christ. 

M.  N. 

FROM  A  YOUNG  WOMAN  OP  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Springfield,  Mass.,  Nov.  18. 
My  Dear  Friend :  In  sending  to  you  these  few  words  of  affection- 
ate sympathy,  I  feel  I  am  expressing  what  would  be  the  feelings  of  my 
dear  father  were  he  still  with  us ;  for  you  well  know  that  you  always 
had  not  only  his  respect  and  confidence,  but  his  Avarra  sympathy  in 
your  noble  struggles  for  the  rights  of  your  fellow-mcn,  and  I  doubt  not 
he  is  now  among  the  innumerable  crov.  d  of  witnesses  who,  imseen  by 
mortal  eyes,  watch  over  and  sustain  you  in  these  dark  hours  of  your 
earthly  lot.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  you  are  constantly  in  our  thoughts, 
and  daily  remembered  in  our  prayers,  and  that  wc  shall  do  what  little 
we  can  to  comfort  and  aid  your  afflicted  wife  and  children,  whom  may 
God  in  his  unspeakable  mercy  guard  and  sustain.   During  your  short 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  417 


■visit  with  us,  some  two  years  since,  you  won  all  our  hearts,  and  the 
remembrance  of  those  few  days  will  ever  be  affectionately  cherished, 
li  is  a  cruel,  bitter  fate  which  denies  to  so  many  loving,  anxious  hearts 
the  possibility  of  doing  any  thing  for  you  ;  to  sit  quietly  and  power- 
less in  our  homes,  and  see  injustice  triumph,  requires  the  full  exertise 
of  all  Christian  patience  and  forbearance,  and  we  can  only  look  to 
Him  who  can  make  all  things  work  together  for  good.  My  mother 
and  sisters  unite  with  me  in  love  and  affectionate  remembrances. 
May  God  be  with  you  even  to  the  end,  and  at  last  receive  you  to 
Himself,  is  the  earnest  prayer  of  your  attached  friend, 

M.  S.  S. 

FROM  A  GIRL  OF  MICHIGAN. 

Lamont,  Ottawa  Co.,  Michigan,  Nov.  23. 
My  Dear  Sir :  I  have  been  strongly  impressed  to  write  you  a  few 
lines  for  many  days ;  and  now,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  I  am  resolved  to 
do  so,  hoping  this  may  reach  you.  I  am  glad  that  you  are  a  Chris- 
tian man  ;  that  you  know  in  whom:  you  have  trusted  all  your  life ; 
that  you  have  that  within  which  will  make  your  spirit  stronger  and 
braiver  to  endure  to  the  last.  My  father  fought  with  you  in  the  Battle 
of  Plattsburg,  in  1812.  He  has  long  since  gone  to  his  rest.  You  will 
meet  him  with  all  the  redeemed  throng,  who  perished  with  their  armor 
on,  in  that  land  where  wrong  will  be  made  right.  If  this  reaches  you 
in  time,  could  you  write  me  but  one  line,  or  your  name,  even,  with 
your  own  hand,  I  would  treasure  it  as  a  priceless  legacy.  May  God 
bless  you  and  give  you  peace  in  your  last  earthly  hour,  is  the  prayer 
of  your  sympathizing  friend,  L.  A.  B. 

FROM  A  WOMAN  OF  NEW  YORK. 

Brooklyn,  New  York,  Nov.  24. 
Dear  Brother :  This  day  is  set  apart  by  many  of  the  States  as  & 
day  o^  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  all  his  mercies  to  us  in  the 
year  that  is  past ;  and,  as  a  people,  we  have  much  to  be  thankful 
for,  while  we  hide  our  faces  in  shame  that  one  of  our  fellow-citizens 
lies  in  prison  this  day,  under  sentence  of  death,  for  daring  to  love 
freedom  and  sympathizing  with  the  oppressed.  And  I  am  impelled, 
from  deep  sympathy  with  you,  to  address  you  these  few  lines,  that  I 
may  add  to  the  proofs  you  already  have,  that  the  great  Northern 
Heart  beats  warmly  in  your  behalf;  and,  though  a  Virginia  jury  pro- 
nounce you  guilty  of  Treason  and  Murder,  and  a  Virginia  judge  pasai 
sentence  ot  death  upon  you,  you  will  not  die.  You  will,  I  trust,  be 
freed  from  the  trials  and  sorrows  of  earth,  your  work  being  done. 
But  does  not  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  foresee  that  when  they 


4i8      Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


have  taken  your  life,  and  those  of  your  fellow-sufFerers,  there  will  rise  . 
up  twenty  John  Browns  where  there  was  one  before,  and  the  ghost 
of  John  Brown  will  haunt  them  till  they  let  the  oppressed  go  free  ?. 
Rejoice,  then,  my  brother,  that  you  are  accounted  worthy  to  suffer. 
*«  The  servant  is  not  above  his  Lord ; "  and  when  I  heard  one  of  our 
Brooklyn  pastors  lead  up  a  congregation  of  three  thousand  souls  in 
tender,  fervent  supplication  to  Him  whose  ear  is  ever  open  to  the  cry 
of  His  children,  in  your  behalf,  and  those  in  prison  with  you,  I  felt 
that  you  would  be  sustained  to  the  last.  And  I  thank  God  this  day, 
as  thousands  will,  for  the  assurance  we  have  that  you  are  not  without 
His  comforting  presence  and  blessing  in  your  bonds,  and  I  believe 
you  are  willing  to  die  if  thereby  the  chains  of  the  oppressed  may  be 
loosed,  that  they  may  go  free ;  and  this  affair  will  surely  hasten  that 
day.  Be  of  good  cheer ;  let  not  your  heart  be  troubled ; "  "neither 
fear  what  man  can  do  iinto  you."  The  loved  ones  you  leave  behind 
will  be  abundantly  cared  for ;  so  do  not  distress  yourself  this  wise ;  and 
my  prayer  is,  and  shall  be,  that  your  faith  and  cotirage  may  sustain 
you  to  the  last,  and  an  abundant  entrance  ministered  unto  you  into 
jova  Heavenly  Father's  House.   Farewell.  H.  C. 

FROM  A  WOMAN  OF  THE  RACE  HE  DIED  FOR. 

Kendalville,  Indiana,  Nov.  25. 
Dear  Friend :  Although  the  hands  of  Slavery  throw  a  barrier  be- 
tween you  and  me,  and  it  may  not  be  my  privilege  to  see  you  in  your 
prison-house,  Virginia  has  no  bolts  or  bars  through  which  I  dread  to 
Bend  you  my  8)Tnpathy.  In  the  name  of  the  young  girl  sold  from  the 
warm  clasp  of  a  mother's  arms  to  the  clutches  of  a  libertine  or  a  prof- 
ligate, — in  the  name  of  the  slave  mother,  her  heart  rocked  to  and  fro 
by  the  agony  of  her  mournful  ?eparation?,  —  I  thank  you.  that  you 
have  been  brave  enough  to  reach  out  your  hands  to  the  crushed  and 
blighted  of  my  race.  You  have  rocked  the  bloody  Bastile ;  and  I 
hope  that  from  your  sad  fate  great  good  may  arise  to  the  cause  of 
freedom.  Already  from  your  prison  has  come  a  shout  of  triumph 
against  the  giant  sin  of  our  country.  The  hemlock  is  distilled  with 
victory  when  it  is  pressed  to  the  lips  of  Socrates.  The  Cross  becomes 
a  glorious  ensign  when  Calvary's  pale-browed  sufferer  yields  up  his 
life  upon  it.  And,  if  Universal  Freedom  is  ever  to  be  the  dominant 
power  of  the  land,  your  bodies  may  be  only  her  first  stepping  stones 
to  dominion.  I  would  prefer  to  see  Slavery  go  down  peaceably  by 
men  breaking  off  their  sins  by  righteousness  and  their  iniquities  by 
Bhowing  justice  and  mercy  to  the  poor  ;  but  we  cannot  tell  what  the 
future  may  bring  forth.  God  writes  national  judgments  upon  national 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  419 


Bins ;  and  what  may  be  slumbering  in  the  storehouse  of  divine  justice 
we  do  not  know.  We  may  earnestly  hope  that  your  fate  will  not  be 
a  vain  lesson,  that  it  will  intensify  our  hatred  of  Slavery  and  love  of 
freedom,  and  that  yoiur  martyr  grave  will  be  a  sacred  altar  upon 
which  men  will  record  their  vows  of  undying  hatred  to  that  system 
which  tramples  on  man  and  bids  defiance  to  God.  I  have  written  to 
your  dear  wife,  and  sent  her  a  few  dollars,  and  I  pledge  myself  to  you 
that  I  will  continue  to  assist  her.  May  the  ever-blessed  God  shield 
you  and  your  fellow -prisoners  in  the  darkest  hours.  Send  my  sym- 
pathy to  your  fellow-prisoners ;  tell  them  to  be  of  good  courage  ;  to  seek 
a  refuge  in  the  Eternal  God,  and  lean  upon  His  everlasting  arms  for  a 
sure  support.  If  any  of  them,  like  you,  have  a  wife  or  children  that 
I  can  help,  let  them  send  me  word.  .  .  . 

Yours  ic' the  cause  of  freedom,  F.  E.  W. 

FROM  TKH  COLORED  WOMEN  OF  BROOKLYN. 

Brooklyn,  Nov.  26. 
In  beha!/  of  the  colored  icomm  of  Boston.  Dear  Sir :  \Vc,  a  portion 
of  the  American  people,  would  fain  offer  you  our  sincere  and  heart- 
felt sympathies  in  the  cause  you  have  so  nobly  espoused,  and  that 
you  so  firmly  adhere  to.  AVe  truly  appreciate  your  most  noble  and 
humane  efibrt,  and  recognize  in  you  a  Saviour  commissioned  to  redeem 
us,  the  American  people,  from  the  great  National  Sin  of  Slavery ;  and 
though  you  have  apparently  failed  in  the  object  of  your  desires,  yet 
the  influence  that  we  believe  it  will  eventually  exert,  will  accomplish 
all  your  intentions.  We  consider  you  a  model  of  true  patriotism,  and 
one  whom  our  common  country  will  yet  regard  as  the  greatest  if.  haa 
produced,  because  you  have  sacrificed  all  for  its  sake.  We  rejoice  in 
the  consciousness  of  your  perfect  resignation.  We  shall  ever  hold 
you  dear  in  our  remembrance,  and  shall  iiifuse  the  eame  feelings  in  our 
posterity.  We  have  always  entertained  a  love  for  the  country  which 
gave  us  birth,  despite  the  wrongs  inflicted  upon  us,  timl  have  al>vayg 
been  hopeful  that  the  future  would  augur  better  things.  W-e  feel 
now  that  your  glorious  act  for  the  cause  of  humanity  has  affcrded  us 
an  unexpected  realization  of  some  of  our  seemingly  vain  hopes.  And 
now,  in  view  of  the  coming  crisis  which  is  to  terminate  all  your  labors 
of  love  for  this  life,  our  mortal  natures  fail  to  sustain  us  under  the 
trying  aflSiction ;  but  when  we  view  it  from  our  religions  standpoint, 
we  feel  that  earth  is  not  worthy  of  you,  and  that  your  spirii  yearneth 
for  a  higher  and  holier  existence.  Therefore  we  willingly  give  you 
tip,  and  submit  to  His  will  •«  who  doeth  all  things  well." 

Yours  with  warm  regard,  M.  S.  J.  T. 


420      Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


PROM  A  WOMAN  OP  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Chambehsburg,  Penx.,  Not.  26. 
...  I  had  hoped  that  yottr  life  would  be  spared,  until  the  recent 
public  declaration  of  Gov.  "Wise,  when  he  visited  you  in  prison  to  tell 
you  that  he  cannot  temper  Virginia  justice  with  mercy  —  that  darling 
attribute  of  Him  ■who  shall  judge  us  all.  A  million  hearts  will  be 
saddened  by  your  execution,  and  a  million  more  will  feel  keenly  on 
the  issues  it  will  thrust  upon  the  world  that  never  felt  before.  Its 
fruits  must  be  left  to  time ;  God  only  knows  them.  As  a  wife  and 
mother,  I  have  regretted  that  an  act  springing  from  deep-seated  con- 
victions of  duty  —  however  mistaken,  morally  or  politically  — ■  should 
desolate  a  home  by  the  gibbet.  But  fear  not  for  those  who  shall 
mourn  your  untimely  and  cruel  end.  He  who  tempers  the  wind  to 
the  shorn  lamb  will  not  forget  them ;  and  the  voices  of  mothers  of 
the  North,  with  the  true-hearted  men,  will  provide  them  with  all  tem- 
poral comforts.  Sincerely  yours, 

M.  S.  M'C. 

FROM  A  WOMAN  OF  PHILADELPHIA. 

Philadeli-hia,  Nov.  27,  1859. 
My  Friend :  You  will  let  me  call  you  so  ?  I  want  to  write  you  a 
few  words  of  loving  sympathy,  though  my  heart  is  heavy  with  grief 
and  sorrow,  and  the  fast-falling  tears  wUl  scarcely  permit  me  to. 
Sometimes,  when  about  my  work,  or  in  the  quiet  twilight  hour,  as  I 
Bit  and  think  of  you,  I  see  only  the  glorious  cause  in  which  you  have 
toiled  and  suffered ;  I  remember  your  heroic  self-sacrifices,  your  noble 
generosity,  your  unwavering,  unhesitating  devotion  to  the  right,  and  I 
say  to  myself:  "Ah!  it  is  a  fitting  close  to  such  a  life;  it  is  well  he 
should  die  a  martyr's  death ;  that  he  should  seal  his  testimony  with 
his  blood ;  that  he  should  obey  the  apostolic  injunction,  and  '  give  his 
life  for  the  brethren.' "  To-day,  I  have  been  thinking  of  you  con- 
stantly, and  with  the  thought  there  has  been  singing  through  my  brain 
the  verse  of  a  hymn  learned  long  ago  : 

"  On  the  Rock  of  Ages  founded, 

Wliiit  can  clijiko  tliy  sure  roposer 
^Vith  8nlvalion'8  walls  stirroundL-d, 
Ibou  canst  smile  nt  all  thy  foes." 

••Ah!"  I  say  to  myself,  "that  is  true,  but  it  does  not  contain  aK; 
for  he  weeps  and  prays  for  his  persecutors."  Sometimes,  when  I  have 
thought  of  the  dovvn-trodden  and  the  oppressed,  I  have  repeated  sadly 
to  myself  the  plaint  which  seems  as  if  written  expressly  for  them  : 
'•  Behold,  is  it  nothing  to  you  all,  ye  that  pass  by,  that  I  sit  alone  and 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  421 


■weep  ? "  Yes,  it  was  something  to  one  brave,  true,  manly  heart,  some- 
thing which  caused  hun  to  toil  and  suflur,  and  at  last  lay  down  his  life 
in  their  cause.  And  then,  all  of  these  high,  brave  thoughts  fade  out, 
and  I  think  of  you  sick  and  suffering,  bound  and  in  prison  ;  I  think  of 
the  scoffs  and  jeers,  the  crown  of  thorns,  the  bloody  sweat,  the  cross, 
the  figony ;  I  think  of  the  widowed  and  heart-broken  wife,  the  out- 
lawed, manly  sons,  —  alas !  alas !  the  fatherless  ones,  —  and  my  heart 
swells  almost  to  bursting  with  its  grief.  I  have  gone  about  for  weeks 
with  a  soul  heavy  and  sick  M'ith  sorrow  :  O,  my  God !  how  can  I  say, 

Thy  will  be  done  "  ?  I  have  one  earnest,  longing  wish ;  that  is,  to  be 
with  you  once,  if  only  for  a  little  while  —  to  look  at  you  with  my  tear- 
dimmed  eyes  —  to  kneel  by  your  side,  feel  ■  your  hand  laid  in  blessing 
on  my  head,  and  then  go  forth  to  battle  for  the  right  with  all  the 
power  that  is  in  me.  I  should  carry  about  that  blessing  with  me  for- 
ever ;  for  it  would  be  that  of  one  already  standing  in  the  light  of  the 
Eternal  Glory.  But  this  may  not  be.  In  its  place  there  is  one  favor  I 
would  ask  of  you.  It  is,  that  you  would  write  me  a  few  words,  if  only 
to  say,  Br  strong ;  "  which  would  be  a  strong  and  sure  support  to 
me,  which  should  be  with  me  always,  and  which  I  would  have  them  ^ 
lay  upon  my  pulseless  heart  at  last.  Is  it  asking  too  much  of  you  ? 
Can  you  spare  me  so  much  of  your  precious  time  ?  And  now,  my 
friend,  I  must  say  —  Farewell.  O,  how  can  I  ?  how  can  I  ?  It  comes 
from  a  gricf-tom  ahd  bleeding  heart.  I  have  but  one  consolation  — 
that  the  Heavenly  Father,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  and  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  tenderest  compassion,  with  his  own  wounds  bleeding  afresh, 
are  ever  near  you  to  comfort  and  to  bless.  And  now,  at  last  —  Fare* 
well !  '  A.  E.  D. 

To  one  very  near  his  rest  and  reward  —  John  Bro\vn. 

FEGM  A  WOMAN  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

BoscAWEN-,  N.  H.,  "Nov,  28. 
Dear  Sir :  I  hardly  know  how  to  address  you  at  this  time  in  ap- 
propriate language.  I  have  read  your  history  and  admired  your  noble 
spirit,  and  have  fi'lt  it  my  duty  to  say  one  word,  at  least,  to  you  frtm 
New  Hampshire,  before  you  go  to  take  your  "  crown  of  glorj'."  I 
have  daily  wished  to  tell  you  of  my  sympathy,  and  have  breathed  in 
secret  prayers  for  you  and  yours.  I  mourn  that  the  world  must  lose 
from  her  visible,  active  scenes,  and  a  wife  and  children  a  husband  and 
father,  one  such  as  you  are.  I  think  I  sec  the  Heavenly  ones  aroimd 
you,  ministering  to  your  spiritual  being,  and  who  will  guide  you  to 
the  Father,  and  give  you  a  place  among  those  who  were  "  slain  for 
the  word  of  God  and  for  the  testimonv  which  they  held,"  and  to  whom 

36 


422      Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


white  robes  were  given,  and  who  serve  him  day  and  night  in  His 
Temple."  We  believe  with  the  great  good  man  who  says,  In  awful 
providences,  and  in  fraternal  triumphing  love,  the  reign  of  night,  this 
evil,  (Slavery,)  is  shaken ;  thus  mingling  pearl  and  crimson  —  the  one 
the  sign  of  peace,  the  other  the  flag  of  strife  —  herald  the  uprising 
dawn  of  deliverance  "  New  Hampshire  has  many  sons  and  daughters 
who  would  help  thee  if  they  could.  .  .  .  Allow  me  to  make  two  re- 
quests of  you,  to  be  granted,  if  in  your  power,  during  these  last  days  of 
earth  to  you:  1.  That  you,  a  dear,  Christian  brother,  just  about  to 
enter  the  celestial  city,  would  write  us  one  word  —  your  autograph,  at 
least.  2.  That  your  last  prayers  and  your  *'7nimstennff"  in  the  angel 
world  may  be  "for  those  whose  powers  and  duties  may  lead  them  to 
labor  for  accomplishing  the  great  and  certain  work  of  overthrowing 
oppression  and  error.    May  God  sustain  you. 

Your  friend,  H.  A.  13. 

FROM  A  WOMAN  OP  BOSTON. 

BosTox,  Mass.,  Nov.  28. 
^  Beloved  and  Honored  Friend :  I  find  comfort  in  the  faith  that  your 
spirit  ascends  and  sings  while  ovks  arc  draped  with  shadows.  Your 
hour  of  freedom  approaches.  Over  that  scaffold,  erected  by  the  foea 
of  freedom,  angels  shall  lovingly  droop  their  arms  to  protect  you.  O  ! 
dear  friend !  I  know  they  will  take  all  thy  pangs.  Thou  wilt  surely 
be  unconscious  of  the  gate  of  mortal  agony  through  which  must  lie 
thy  pathway  to  thy  near  and  eternal  home.  "We  abide  in  the  shaded 
valley  while  thou  ascendest  the  Mount  of  Vision.  Our  hearts  ache  at 
losing  thee  from  our  world,  for  thou  hast  taught  us  how  to  live,  more 
simply  brave,  more  tenderly  conscientious  lives.  The  banks  of  the 
Potomac  are  sanctified  anew  and  forever  to  us  now,  and  we  feel  that 
the  spirit  of  Washington  may  hail  thee  as  a  brother  and  a  peer.  The 
slopes  of  living  green  that  he  so  loved  in  life  will  be  golden-green  in 
the  pictured  halls  of  our  memories  and  associations,  because  of  the 
eternal  brightness  of  thy  failure,  as  men  may  now  covmt  by  results. 
But  — 

"  They  never  fail  who  die 
In  a  great  canso :  the  block  may  soak  their  gore, 
Their  heads  may  sodden  iu  the  sun ;  their  limhi 
Bo  Strang  to  city  gates  and  castle  vrnlls ; 
But  still  their  spirit  walks  abroad.  Thoagh  yean 
Elapse,  and  others  share  as  dark  a  doom, 
They  but  angment  the  deep  ad  S'^reeping  thonghts 
"Which  overpower  all  others,  and  conduct 
Iho  irorld  at  last  to  freedom." 

Oar  blessed  Lord  and  his  apoetles  did  not  fail,  though  the  Jews  be* 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  423 


lievcd  that  Christianity  died  at  the  Cross.  The  Three  Hundred  who 
fell  at  TliermopyltB  failed  not.  Cato,  when  the  body  of  his  dead  son 
was  brought  to  him,  on  a  bier,  all-hailed  him  —  Welcome  I "  as  one 
who  had  done  his  duty,  and  bade  the  attendants  lay  him  down  where 
he  could  view  the  bloody  corse  and  count  his  glorious  wounds.  Yon 
granite  shaft  on  Bunker  Hill  witnesseth  that  on  that  Warren  and  his 
fellow-soldiers  fell ;  but  no  failure  drapes  in  history  their  names  with  a 
f  acral  pall.  Neither  hast  thou,  honored  old  man,  nor  thy  dead  sons, 
nor  thy  fallen  companions,  failed.  When  they  who  slay  thee  shall  be 
gathered  to  their  ignoble  dust,  what  hearts  will  thrill,  as  ours  do  now, 
in  gratitude  for  the  great  gift  of  thy  life  of  sixty  years ;  for  the  heritage 
of  thy  steadfast  faith  and  deeds  ? 

Dear  old  pilgrim,  thou  mayst  safely  bequeath  thy  wife  and  children 
to  Northern  homes  and  hearts.  We  shall  not  forget  those  dear  to  thee. 
We  take  them  as  a  sacred  legacy.  Thine  eyes  are  lifted  to  the  distant 
hills.  Ours  are  often  wei  with  burning  tears.  But  we  remember  that 
thou  abidest  under  the  sLadow  of  the  Almighty,  where  no  evil  can 
befall  thee.  Believe  us,  multitudes  of  brave  and  sorrow-stricken 
hearts  in  all  parts  of  our  country,  and  even  the  world,  await  mourn- 
fully and  s>Tnpathetically  thy  exit.  It  will  be  thy  freedom  hour.  And 
angels  shall  soothujgly  welcome  thee  to  a  home  where  there  is  neither 
sorrow  nor  crying.  For  blessed  are  they  that  do  his  commandments, 
that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  enter  in  through  uie 
gates  into  the  city. 

We  would  greet  with  hearty  respect  the  humane  jailer  and  his 
family. 

Farewell,  and  peace  abide  Avith  thee.  M.  M.  W. 

FROM  TWO  OLD  ACQUAINTANCES. 

Hudson,  Ohio,  Nov.  28,  1859. 
Dear  Sir :  My  long  acquaintance  with  you  and  with  your  life  has 
made  such  an  impression  on  my  mind  that  I  feel  that  there  is  an  attach- 
ment formed  which  Death  alone  can  separate ;  and  now,  as  it  seems 
the  end  draws  near  that  you  must  die,  I  would  say  that  my  prayer  is, 
that  you  may  come  off  conqueror  through  Him  that  hath  loved  us,  and 
find  a  resting-place  in  heaven,  where  I  hope  to  meet  with  all  the 
friends  of  humanity.  I  want  something  from  your  hand  to  look  upon 
and  show  to  the  friends  of  humanitj'.  Your  name  on  a  card  directed 
to  me,  with  a  date  at  the  place  where  you  are,  I  would  like,  with  some 
Bhort  sentiment  of  your  choosing.  L.  C. 

P.  S.  I  hear  you  have  several  young  daughters,  which  may  be  de- 
pendent on  the  charity  of  friends  to  get  along  in  the  world.   I  woold 


424      Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


like  to  take  the  youngest,  and  educate  her  in  my  family  as  one  of  them, 
if  you  and  your  friends  are  ■willing.  I  have  a  daughter  sixteen 
years  old,  and  it  would  be  her  delight  to  help  educate  one  of  Capt. 
John  Brown's  daughters.  .  .  .  Farewell !  May  God  Almighty  strength- 
en you  as  you  are  about  to  be  offered  up. 

Columbus,  November  28. 
Dear  Sir :  Duty  and  inclination  both  urge  me  at  this  late  hour  of 
your  affliction  to  show  you  at  least  one  token  of  remembrance  and 
sympathy.  The  fact  of  my  early  acquaintance  with  you  in  former 
years,  although  much  younger  than  yourself,  the  intimacy  that  existed 
between  our  fethers'  families  for  years,  growing  out  of  the  relations 
they  sustained  to  each  other  as  neighbors  and  citizens,  and  brethren  in 
the  same  Church  with  yourself,  cooperating  for  the  establishment  of  a 
New  England  town  in  Hudson,  Ohio  ;  for  religion  in  a  church,  mor- 
als in  a  town,  and  education  in  the  founding  of  the  Western  Reserve 
College  —  all  which  they  lived  to  see ;  the  friendship  which  my  (now 
sainted)  father  cherished  for  you,  of  which  you  had  ample  testimony ; 
the  high  esteem  which  I  had  and  have  now  in  memory  of  your  worthy 
(now  departed)  father,  as  well  as  the  high  respect  you  sustained  in 
intelligent  and  religious  society ;  the  strong  friendship  which  I  now 
feel  for  your  worthy  and  afflicted  sister,  Mary  Ann,  and  a  heart  yearn- 
ing with  tenderness  for  all  in  sorrow,  and  especially  now  in  your  pecu- 
liar position,  —  I  say  all  this  produces  the  most  intense  interest  in  me  as 
well  as  thousands  of  others ;  and  although  I  had  scarcely  heard  a 
word  of  you  for  many  years,  excepting  your  Kansas  trials,  and  not 
even  particulars  of  that ;  yet  when  I  first  heard  of  the  outbreak  at 
Harper's  Ferry — the  death  of  your  two  sons  —  the  hasty  trial  —  the 
merciless  sentence  —  after  your  truthful  and  noble  speech,  and  all  — 
my  inmost  soul  was  moved  with  sadness ;  and  although  suffering  with 
illness,  my  first  impulse  was  to  do  something,  if  possible,  for  a  grant 
of  mercy ;  but  I  soon  was  foiled  in  that  hope,  and  I  resolved  to  resort 
to  prayer  that  God  would  overrule  all  for  good,  as  He  has,  no  doubt, 
and  that  you  might  be  sustained  in  every  conflict :  which  prayer  has 
not  only  gone  up  under  my  roof,  but  from  thousands  of  others  all  over 
the  land ;  and  those  prayers  have  been  heard.  At  any  rate,  from  your 
interesting  letters  it  seems  you  are  almost  miraciUomly  sustained  in 
these  your  last  days  of  earthly  trials ;  and  although  you  sometimes 
may  be  pierced  for  a  moment  to  be  surrounded  by  those  who  deride 
instead  of  those  who  love,  yet  rejoice  and  tritunph.  And  I  praise  my 
Maker  that  he  gives  you  grace  to  conquer,  and  at  last,  when  that  last 
hour  comes,  from  which  all  flesh  shrinks,  I  firmly  trust  that  the  Sa- 
triour,  (when,  perhaps,  poor  man  supposes  he  is  crushing  vou  with 


Letters  from  Northern  Women.  425 


Jinguish)  will  put  underneath  you  His  everlasting  oaA.  Almightif  Axa^ 
and  lift  you  above  all  feiir  and  pangs,  and  you  will  rejoice  and  tri- 
umph ;  and  O  !  how  glorious  will  be  the  transition  from  earth's  cruel 
bondage  to  that  Heavenly  Liberty,  and  from  foes  here  to  sainted  loved 
ones  above  !  God  grant  all  this —  is  the  unceasing  prayer  of  many  as 
well  as  your  most  sincere  and  sympathizing  friend,  H.  R. 

.  .  .  Please  tell  ihosQ  felloio-prisoners  I  pray  their  peace  may  be  made 
with  God.  You  have  the  kind  regard  and  earnest  prayer  of  my  hus- 
band and  son. 

Dear  Sir :  To  the  accompanying  line  from  Mrs.  R.  I  add  a  word. 
I  am  glad  you  feel  so  well  prepared  to  meet  with  calmness  and  com- 
posure your  fate.  I  feel  assured,  as  one  in  this  State  recently  said, 
"The  Lord  will  take  care  of  your  soul,  and  posterity  will  take  circ  of 
your  narue."  The  Lord  and  time  will  both  be  right  in  the  judginent 
of  men's  characters  and  motives.  May  the  Lord  be  with  you,  and 
guide  and  sustain. 

FBOM  A  MASSACHUSETTS  MATRON.* 

 ,  Massachusetts,  November  29. 

Dear  Friend :  I  have  written  to  you  once  before,  but  fear  it  has 
never  reached  you ;  and  now  I  try  again,  trusting  in  the  generosity 
of  Capt.  Avis.  Be  of  good  cheer,  dear,  brave  old  friend ;  your  dear 
ones  will  be  generously  and  lovingly  cared  for  all  the  rest  of  their 
days !  Last  evening  there  was  a  crowded  and  enthusiastic  met-ting 
at  the  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  the  proceeds  of  which  were  to  go  to 
your  stricken  family.  Every  where,  from  all  parts  of  the  country, 
money  is  poiiring  in,  in  large  sums  and  small,  for  the  cause  your  self-  • 
devotion  has  made  sacred  to  all  Christian  hearts.  I  would  gladly 
relinquish  ten  years  of  my  mortal  life,  if  thereby  you  could  hear  oven 
the  echo  of  the  noble  things  that  were  said  by  the  noblest  men  in  our 
land  last  night.  I  longed  for  wings  to  fly  to  you  and  tell  the  words 
of  life,  L.-uucy,  and  eternal  truth  uttered  so  eloquently  by  that  poet 
and  p>itiosopher,  Mr.  Emerson,  in  behalf  of  you  and  your  cause.  Not 
many  eyes  were  dry ;  and  every  body  that  had  a  heart  throbhi-d  in 
unison  with  your  own.  God  is  vertj  good,  my  friend.  He  never  for- 
gets us ;  and,  in  our  darkest  hour,  he  sends  us  the  light  and  stri.'iij;th 
we  need.  Thousands  of  true  men  and  women  will  never  tire  of  living 
to  fill  the  void  your  death  will  make  to  the  afflicted  family  at  North 
Elba.    Trust  me  when  I  say  we  will  never  forget  them.  .  .  .  Dear, 

♦  The  -writer  of  the  first  letter  of  this  chapter. 

36* 


426       Letters  from  Northern  Women. 


brave  old  friend,  I  honor,  love,  and  bias  you  for  the  immortal  testi- 
mony you  have  given  to  truth  and  right,  1  consecrate  myself  anew  to 
the  cause  of  the  oppressed.  Go  bravely  to  your  death !  God  and 
His  holy  angels  stand  ready  to  receive  you,  and  generations  yet  un- 
born will  cherish  M'ith  love  the  remembrance  of  John  Brown  at  Har- 
per's Ferry.    Farewell ! 

Yours  in  love  and  blessing  forever,        M.  E.  S. 

Please  give  poor  Stevens  my  heartfelt  sympathy  and  admiration  for 
Lib  fortitude  and  patience.    God  bless  you  both ! 


» 


ni. 

* 

Letters  from  His  Family  and  Relatives. 

SUCH  portions  of  the  Letters  received  by  John  Brown  in 
prison,  from  his  family  and  relatives,  as  it  is  proper  to 
publish,  are  herewith  subjoined : 

FROM  JOHN  brown's  WIFE. 

Eaglewood,  Perth  Amboy,  New  York,  Nov.  13. 
My  Dear  and  Beloved  Husbaud  :  I  am  here  with  Mrs.  Spring,  the 
kind  lady  who  came  to  see  you,  and  minister  to  your  wants,  which  I 
am  deprived  of  doing.  You  have  nursed  and  taken  care  of  me  a  great  « 
deal ;  but  I  cannot  even  come  and  look  at  you.  0,  it  is  hard !  But 
I  am  perfectly  satisfied  with  it,  believing  it  best.  And  may  the  Lord 
reward  the  kind  jailer  for  his  kind  attentions  to  you.  You  cannot 
think  the  relief  it  gave  me  to  see  Mrs.  Spring,  and  to  get  a  letter  from 
your  own  hands.  When  you  were  at  home  last  J une  I  did  not  think 
that  I  took  your  hand  for  the  last  time.  But  may  Thy  will,  O  Lord, 
be  done.  I  do  not  want  to  do  or  say  any  thing  to  disturb  your  peace 
of  mind ;  but,  O,  I  would  serve  you  gladly  if  I  could.  I  have  often 
thought  that  I  should  rather  hear  that  you  were  dead  than  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  your  enemies  ;  but  I  don't  think  so  now.  The  good  that 
is  growing  out  of  it  is  wonderful.  If  you  had  preached  in  the  pulpit 
ten  such  lives  as  you  have  lived,  you  could  not  have  done  so  much 
good  as  you  have  done  in  that  one  speech  to  the  Court.  It  is  talked 
about  and  preached  about  every  where  and  in  all  places.  You  know 
that  Moses  was  not  allowed  to  go  into  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  so  you  are 
not  allowed  to  see  your  desire  carried  out.  Man  deviseth  his  way, 
but  the  Lord  directeth  his  steps.  .  .  . 


(427) 


428  Letters  from  his  Family  &  Relatives. 


Near  Philapelthia,  Nov.  29. 
My  dear  Husband :  I  have  just  received  your  letter  to  Mr.  M., 
saying  that  you  would  like  to  have  me  stay  here  until  you  are  disposed 
of.  I  felt  as  if  I  could  not  go  any  further  away  until  that  sad  event. 
You  are  the  gainer,  but  we  are  the  losers ;  but  God  will  take  care  of 
us  all.  I  am  with  Mrs.  Lucretia  Mott.  ...  I  find  warm  friends 
every  where  I  go.  I  cannot  begin  to  tell  you  the  good  this  Sacrifice 
has  done,  or  is  likely  to  do,  for  the  Oppressed.  O,  I  feel  it  is  a  great 
Sacrifice ;  but  hope  that  God  will  enable  us  to  bear  it.  ...  I  went  to 
hear  Mrs.  Mott  preach  to-day,  and  heard  a  most  excellent  sermon ; 
she  made  a  number  of  allusions  to 'you,  and  the  preaching  you  are 
doing,  and  are  likely  to  do.  I  expect  to  hear  Wendell  Pliillips  to- 
morro\y  n\ght.  Every  one  thinks  that  God  is  with  you.  I  hope  he 
•will  be  -with  you  unto  the  end.  Do  write  to  me  all  you  can.  I  have 
■written  to  Governor  Vi^ise  for  your  body  and  those  of  our  beloved 
sons.  I  find  there  is  no  lack  of  money  to  effect  it  if  they  can  be  had. 
Farewell,  my  dear,  beloved  husband,  whom  I  am  never  to  see  in  this 
■world  again,  but  hope  to  meet  in  the  next.  From  your  most  affection- 
ate wife,  Mary  A.  Bhown.  . 

FROM  JOHN  brown's  CHILDREN. 

North  Elba,  November  9. 
.  .  .  Father,  you  said  that  you  ■were  cheerful.  I  am  glad  of  that. 
But  why  should  you  be  otherwise  ?  All  you  were  guilty  of  v/as,  do- 
ing your  duty  to  your  fellow-men.  Would  that  we  were  all  guilty 
of  the  same.  Martha  and  Bell*  bear  their  grief  like  heroines.  .  .  . 
Give  my  love  to  Stevens  and  the  other  prisoners.  Tell  them  I  think 
of  them  often ;  tell  them  to  hope  for  the  best :  but  be  sure  and  be  pre- 
pared for  the  worst.  .  .  .  Ever  your  afiectionate  daughter, 

»   Annie  Brown. 

Dear  Father :  I  deeply  sympathize  with  you ;  and  were  it  in  my 
power  to  help  or  comfort  you,  how  gladly  would  I  do  it !  But  that 
cannot  be ;  and  I  can  only  say,  I  hope  we  may  so  live  as  to  profit  by 
the  kind  and  good  advice  you  have  so  often  given  us,  and  at  last  meet 
in  heaven.    Farewell !   Your  affectionate  daughter, 

Ellen  Brown. 

Jefferson,  Ashtabula  Co.,  Ohio,  > 
Thursday,  Nov.  28,  1859.  5 
My  dear,  dear  Father :  I  have  just  learned  that  there  is  probably  a 
way  through  which  1  may  communicate  with  you;  and,  though  the 
time  is  short,  I  must  say  a  word. 

*  The  widows  of  Oliver  and  Wsteon  Brown. 


Letters  from  his  Family  &  Relatives.  429 


.  While  my  heart  is  bowed  down  with  xinutterable  grief,  I  have  cause 
to  thank  God  that  my  reason  is  yet  unclouded.  The  Spirit  which  has 
sustained  you  in  your  hours  of  dreadful  suffering,  and  which  dispels 
the  shadows  of  "  the  dark  valley,"  has  not  deserted  us  who  love  to  call 
you  father.  I  feel  that  I  cannot,  in  these  my  last  words  to  you  on  this 
side  of  Heaven,  say  any  thing  more  comforting.  Though  we  are  poor 
in  this  world's  goods,  and  some  of  our  number  are  hunted  by  the 
minions  of  tyranny  for  endeavoring  to  aid  our  despised  and  oppressed 
brethren,  we  yet  feel  rich  in  the  legacy  of  your  life  and  deeds. 

You  say  in  your  letter  to  J.  R.,  "  Tell  my  poor  boys  not  to  mourn 
for  me."  O,  how  can  we  help  mourning  for  you  ?  We  must  mingle 
our  tears  together  over  our  dear  lost  father.  No,  not  lost;  for, 
"  though  you  die,  yet  shall  you  rise  again."  For  a  brief  period,  you 
must  pass  beyond  our  sight.  We  may  never  look  upon  your  outward 
form  again,  but  still  you  will  live  —  live  in  the  hearts  of  your  children, 
and  in  the  hearts  of  millions  of  poor  Afric's  sons  and  daughters,  who 
will  yet  love  to  call  you  father. 

Be  assured  that  all  I  can  do  to  minister  to  the  Comfort  of  the  desti- 
tute members  of  our  family,  I  shall  do,  «•  not  forgetting  those  in 
bonds  as  bound  with  them." 

And  now,  my  dear  father,  be  cheered  by  our  conviction  that  your 
life  furnishes  the  best  vindication  of  your  memory ;  that,  even  7iow, 
your  motives  are  appreciated  by  those  whose  hearts  are  susceptible  to. 
generous  and  noble  emotions ;  and,  O  !  with  these -words  I  convey  the 
assurance  of  the  undying  attachment  of  your  affectionate  son  John,  in 
this  his  long,  last —  Farewell. 

FROM  JOHN  brown's  SISTER. 

Rawsonvh-le,  Nov.  23. 
My  dear  Brother  John :  If  I  have  not  been  first  to  come  forward  to 
express  my  sympathy  for  you,  in  this  your  hour  of  trial,  it  was  not 
because  I  did  not  feel  very  deeply ;  but  whenever  I  undertake  to  give 
expression  to  my  feelings,  words  are  inadequate,  and  I  find  myself 
driven  away  from  earth  in  thought  to  find  consolation ;  and  I  rejoice 
that  there  is  One  seeth  as  man  cannot  see.  O,  my  brother,  if  I  could 
Bay  any  thing  that  -would  help  to  cheer  thine  heart  or  buoy  up  your 
spirits,  I  should  be  most  happy.  You  say  in  your  letter  to  Jeremiah 
that  the  time  iriay  come  when  we  -will  not  be  ashamed  to  own  our 
brother  John.  Do  not  let  the  evil  spirit  suggest  such  a  thought  as  this 
to  mar  your  peace.  No !  I  rejoice  that  a  brother  of  mine  is  accounted 
worthy  to  sufier  and  die  in  His  cause,  and  I  feel  myself  impelled  to 
cry  out,  «'  The  Lord  reigneth ;  let  the  earth  rejoice ; "  and,  as  you, 
like  our  Heavenly  Master,  have  been  a  "Man  of  Sorrows,  and  ac- 


430  Letters  from  his  Family  &  Relatives. 


quainted  with  grief,"  I  do  pray  that  you  may  be  able  to  forgive  your 
enemies,  and  to  pray  for  them,  as  Stephen  of  old  did,  "Lord,  lay  not 
this  sin  to  their  charge." 

0,  read  the  53d  chapter  of  Isaiah,  and  may  it  comfort  and  sustain 
you  as  it  has  me.  O,  fear  not  them  that  kill  the  body  and  have  not 
power  to  kill  the  soul."  I  feel  that  you  will  be  sustained  in  every 
conflict.  Let  it  cheer  you  that  thousands  of  Christians  are  offering 
prayer  to  God  daily  and  hourly  in  your  behalf,  and  that  God  will  get 
honor  and  glory  in  the  jinale  of  the  matter.  I  received  a  letter  yes- 
terday from  her  that  was  Harriett  O  ,  saying,  "  TeU  your  brother 

how  deeply  I  feel  and  pray  for  him  in  these  his  days  of  trial,  that  God 
will  be  his  friend  and  support  to  the  last."  Sister  D—  would  unite 
•with  me  in  this,  if  she  were  here ;  for  it  is  the  first  thing  thought  of 
■when  we  meet  —  How  shall  we  express  our  sympathy  for  him  ?  What 
can  we  say  that  will  add  one  ray  of  comfort  ?  I  shall  write  to  Mary, 
for  my  own  widowed  heart  can  in  some  measure  realize  how  bitter  is 
the  cup  of  which  she  must  drink.  I  should  dearly  love  to  receive  a 
few  lines,  at  least,  from  you.  My  children  send  their  sympathy  and 
love ;  und  now,  dear  brother,  God  be  with  you,  is  the  prayer  of  your 
affectionate  sister.  Makian  S.  H. 

Please  receive  what  mother  has  written  as  coming  from  myself  also ; 
nnd  may  God  be  with  j'ou  and  sustain  you  in  all  your  trials.  I  can 
say  no  more.  Your  affectionate  nephew,  A.  K.  H. 

FROM  JOHN  brown's  NIECES. 

Hudson,  Ohio,  Nov.  28. 
Dear  Uncle  John:  Through  the  politeness  of  Mr.  Lewis,  from 
Akron,  we  take  this  opportunity  to  send  you  our  love  and  heartfelt 
sympathies  in  your  present  tribulation.  We  think  of  you  almost  every 
moment,  and  nightly  our  simple  prayers  are  offered  up  in  behalf  of  our 
tmcle  John,  that  he  may  be  sustained  in  all  his  afflictions  by  an  over- 
ruling Providence.  W e  remain,  «ts  ever,  your  affectionate  nieces, 

A.  L.  W.  and  F.  C.  B. 

FROM  JOHN  brown's  HALF  BROTHEU. 

Cleveland,  Nov.  9. 
Dear  Brother  John  :  I  will  not  attempt  to  express  my  feelings  of 
sj-mpathy  for  you.  You^  know  my  heart.  Can  I  do  any  thing  for 
you  in  regard  to  your  business,  or  for  your  family  ?  .  .  .  Jason  wants 
to  go  and  see  you,  but  cannot.  He  says,  "  Tell  father  I  wish  I  could 
help  him."  .  .  .  My  family  wish  to  be  remembered  to  you.  You  will 
live  in  our  hearts,  though  dead  in  body.   Yours  affectionately. 

JXBEMIAH  BbOWK. 


I^etters  from  hh  Family  &  Relatives.  431 


PROM  JOHN  brown's  COUSINS. 

■\ViNDHAM,  Portage  Co,,  Ohio,  Nov.  12. 

My  Dear  Cousin :  I  have  just  completed  the  attentive  perusal  of  the 
account  published  in  the  New  York  Tribune  of  November  5,  of  your, 
trial  and  sentence  to  be  hung  on  the  2d  December.  Never  before  did 
I  read  such  a  sentence  upon  any  relative  of  mine.  From  their  own 
witnesses  I  cannot  see  any  ground  why  you  should  be  sentenced  to 
death  for  a  single  one  of  the  counts  presented  in  your  indictment. 
You  may  have  one  thing  to  comfort  you  under  all  yoMX  afflictions  and 
sorrows :  "  The  Lord  reigns ; "  and  He  will  cause  the  wrath  of  man  to 
praise  him,  and  the  remainder  ^t)f  wrath  He  will  restrain.  He  knows 
well  what  were  yoxa  motives  in  what  you  have  done ;  and  whether  it 
was  the  best  course  or  not,  he  will  overrule  it  all  for  his  glory.  The 
Bible  throughout  condemns  oppression  in  all  its  forms,  and  is  on  the 
side  of  the  oppressed,  and  their  sighs  and  groanings  have  come  up 
before  him,  and  he  has  seen  all  their  tears.  Though  man  may  not  be 
able  to  deliver  those  who  are  in  bonds,  yet  God  can  do  it  with  perfect 
ease,  and  he  has  taken  the  matter  into  his  own  hands,  and  he  will 
certainly  accomplish  it.  The  prophet  Isaiah  was  directed  to  say  to 
the  people,  "There  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the  wicked.  Cry 
aloud ;  spare  uot ;  lift  up  thy  voice  like  a  trumpet ;  and  show  my  peo- 
ple their  transgressions,  and  the  house  of  Jacob  their  sins.  Is  not 
this  the  fast  that  I  have  chosen,  to  loose  the  bands,  of  wickedness,  to 
undo  the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  that  ye 
break  every  yoke  ?  Is  it  not  to  deal  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and 
that  thou  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy  house  ?  When  thou 
seest  the  naked,  that  thou  cover  him,  and  that  thou  hide  not  thyself 
from  thine  own  flesh  ?  " 

He  who  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  ttf  dwell  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  sent  his  servants  Moses  and  Aaron  to  Pharaoh,  king 
of  Egypt,  saying,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  of  the  Hebrews,  Let  my 
people  go,  that  they  may  serve  me ;  for  I  will  at  this  time  send  all  my 
plagues  upon  thine  heart,  and  upon  thy  servants,  and  upon  thy  peo- 
ple, that  thou  mayest  know  there  is  none  like  me  in  all  the  earth." 
Pharaoh  said  in  the  pride  and  stoutness  of  his  heart,  "  Who  is  the 
Lord,  that  I  should  obey  his  voice  to  let  Israel  go  ?  I  know  not  the 
Lord ;  neither  will  I  let  Israel  go."  So  may  the  wicked  slaveholders 
of  the  South  say  respecting  those  whom  they  cruelly  hold  in  bondage ; 
but  the  same  king  who  delivered  the  children  of  Israel  from  Egyptiau 
bondage  will  surely  deliver  those  who  are  oppressed  in  our  own  coun- 
try, and  it  will  not  be  in  the  united  power  of  earth  and  hell  to  pre- 
vent their  deliverance.    God  will  accomplish  it  in  his  Q'nu.  good  tim,Q 


432  Letters  from  his  Family  &  Relatives. 


and  way.  We  may  •well  exclaim  with  Jefferson,  "  I  tremble  for  my 
country  when  I  remember  that  God  is  just." 

You,  my  dear  sir,  may  be  called  to  die  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  as 
your  beloved  sons  have  been  caused  to  give  up  their  lives ;  but,  if  so, 
I  believe  your  and  their  blood  will  "  cry  unto  the  Lord  from  the 
ground."  If  you  are  really  a  child  of  God,  you  will  soon  be  where 
the  wicked  cease  from  troubling,  and  where  the  weary  are  at  rest ; 
where  all  things  work  together  for  good.  Christ  is  saying  to  you, 
"  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter," 
I  fully  believe  what  the  kind  Quaker  woman  *  wrote  you,  "  Thoitsands 
pray  for  thee  every  day.  Posterity  will  do  thee  Justice."  Should  they 
put  you  to  death,  they  will  not  only  have  to  wade  tlirough  the  blood 
of  those  who  have  been  cruelly  murdered  in  the  same  cause,  but  also 
through  the  prayers  of  God's  people,  which  will  not  be  unheeded  or 
disregarded  by  the  hearer  of  prayer.  I  am  exceeding  thankful  that 
the  jailer  is  so  kind  to  you,  and  that  you  are  permitted  to  occupy  your- 
self in  witing  and  reading.  I  doubt  not  but  you  now  value  the  Bible 
far  above  all  other  reading.  May  it  do  you  good  !  It  will  be  exceed- 
ingly gratifying  to  me  to  receive  a  letter  from  you  before  your  exit. 
...  I  shall  continue  to  pray  for  you  so  long  as  you  may  be  a  subject 
of  prayer,  that  the  Lord  may  comfort  and  support  you  and  your  re- 
maining mourning  and  afflicted  family.  May  we  all  be  permitted  to 
meet  in  heaven,  with  all  the  blood-bought  throng,  and  with  them  unite 
in  praise  to  the  Redeemer  forever  and  ever.  May  that  peace  which 
passeth  all  understanding  be  yours  in  the  trj-ing  hour. 

Farewell !    Farewell !  L.  H. 

La  Crosse,  Wisconsin,  Nov.  20. 
Dear  Cousin  :  Little  did  I  think  when  I  parted  with  you  and  other 
friends  in  Hudson  twenty  years  ago  that  I  should  ever  address  you  a 
prisoner  under  sentence  of  death.  But  such  are  the  mysterious  ways 
of  that  inscrutable  Providence  that  directs  our  steps,  however  we  may 
devise  our  ways.  I  have  for  years  watched  your  strange,  eventful 
history.  I  have  wept  for  your  griefs,  and  my  soul  has  burned  within 
me  when  I  have  read  the  tale  of  wrongs  endured  by  your  family  in 
Kansas.  And  when  I  now  read,  in  a  venial  partisan  press  those 
heartless  slanders,  many  of  which,  extending  back  to  former  years,  I 
know  to  be  as  base  as  can  be  invented  by  the  Father  of  Lies,  and  see 
you  held  up  before  the  world  4n  a  character  not  only  impossible  to 
you,  but  to  any  one  brought  up  and  educated  by  the  sainted  Oliver 
Brown,  my  indignation  can  scarcely  be  repressed.    It  is  for  this  I  feel 

*  Tbe  letter  referred  to  I  do  not  republish  iu  this  TOlu:\ie,as  It  has  alivod;  ajipeared 
la  "The  Public  life." 


Letters  from  his  Family  &  Relatives.  433 


that,  ere  you  must  undergo  the  sentence  meted  out  to  you  by  a  false 
and  wicked  System,  I  must  write  a  word,  simply  to  express  to  you  my 
confidence  in  your  sincerity,  and  my  belief  that  you  have  acted  accord- 
ing to  your  convictions  of  duty.  Looking  at  the  matter  from  my  own 
stand-point,  I  should  not  conceive  it  my  duty  to  have  done  as  you  did. 
Place  me  in  your  circiunstances,  and  I  am  wholly  unable  to  say  what 
I  should  have  done.  I  have  but  one  son !  Were  I  called  to  see  him 
wantonly  sacrificed  to  the  extension  of  a  System,  founded,  nurtured, 
and  perpetuated  only  in  Avrong,  I  know  not  what  it  would  make  me. 
In  a  conversation  with  you  at  your  father's  house,  twenty-two  years 
since,  when  some  of  our  friends  imbibed  the  strange  notion  that  they 
had  become  perfectly  holy,  you  remarked : 

}Ve  never  know  ourselves  till  thoroughly  tried.  As  heating  of  old 
smooth  coin  will  make  the  effaced  stamp  visible  again,  so  the  jire  of 
temptation  reveals  what  is  latent  even  to  ourselves." 

I  will  not  at  this  distance,  and  under  your  circumstances,  even 
venture  an  opinion  as  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  your  act.  If  your  sen- 
tence is  executed,  you  are  too  near  the  bar  of  that  God  who  will  judge 
righteous  judgment,  who,  as  you  have  said,  "  is  no  respecter  of  per- 
sons," for  me  to  pretend  to  sit  in  judgment.  Rather  would  I  com- 
mend you  to  that  mercy  that  "  will  not  break  a  bruised  reed."  But 
this  I  will  say,  that  I  would  sooner  take  the  place  you  must  take  be- 
fore Him  than  that  of  the  noblest  in  the  world's  esteem,  who  has 
robbed  the  least  of  God's  poor  of  his  right.  I  shall  cherish  your 
memory  while  God  spares  you  here,  as  one  I  formerly  esteemed  very 
highly,  and  whom  I  never  can  believe  would  have  done  a  known 
wrong,  even  to  save  your  life.  I  know  it  will  take  another  and  a  bet- 
ter generation  to  do  justice  to  your  memory.  Yet  I  feel  an  earnest 
desire  to  do  what  I  can  to  set  you  before  the  world  in  the  true  light. 
I  shall  endeavor  to  open  correspondence  with  your  family,  and  gather 
all  the  facts,  both  for  my  own  satisfaction  and  that  of  other  friends. 
If  this  shall  reach  you  in  time,  may  I  beg  of  you  a  word,  though  it  be 
6m/  a  word,  that  I  may  know  that  it  was  received.  I  shall  observe  the 
day  that  man  has  fixed  to  tei-minate  your  earthly  career  as  a  day  of 
fasting  and  prayer,  in  which  I  shall  endeavor  in  my  imperfect  way  to 
remember  not  only  you  and  your  deoply-afHicted  family,  but  also  bear 
upon  my  heart  before  a  compassionate  Saviour,  th^  oppressed  and  down- 
trodden, "  remembering  them  that  are  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them." 

And  now,  cousm  John,  farewell,  till  we  meet  in  eternity.  And  may 
Tfc  then  be  permitted,  with  those  venerable  fathers  who  taught  us  in 
youth  to  love  and  serve  a  God  of  truth  and  righteousness,  to  join  ixji 
the  new  song  to  Him  that  loved  us  and  bought  us  with  his  own  pre* 
cious  blood.    Your  aifoctionate  cousin,  JSnwAjiD  Brown, 

37 


"  We  are  educating  our  children  for  the  same  fate  that  has  over* 
taken  John  Brown.  Our  code  of  morals  must  be  changed.  We  must 
forego  our  reli^ous  teachings  —  the  golden  rule  must  be  unlearned, 
and  the  dogmas  of  our  Kevolutionary  Fathers  concerning  human 
rights  forgotten.  We  have  no  Literature,  no  Philosophy,  no  Morality, 
no  Bcligion,  -which  this  inexorable  despotism  has  not  proscribed  in 
this  Republican  land.  This  Moloch  of  Slavery  demands,  yearly,  fresh 
victims  for  its  bloody  altar,  and  it  selects  them  firom  that  portion  of 
our  people  most  distinguished  fot  a  conscientious  regard  for  morality 
and  religion.  .  <  .  At  a  late  Agricultural  Fair  in  South  Carolina 
a  reward  was  offered  to  him  who  should  produce  two  slaves  freshly 
imported  from  Africa.  The  Slaves  were  produced,  and  South  Caro- 
lina presented  a  silver  pitcher  as  a  reward  to  the  pirate,  while  at  the 
same  time  she  was  spinning  the  rope  to  hang  John  Brown,  for  heeding 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount." 


DEATH    OF  SAMSON. 


"  Miserere,  Domine." 


"  MisrazBE,  Domino!" 
Tolling  bells  make  mournful  wail, 
Heart  is  sick  and  cheek  is  pale, 
Troth  snd  justice  seem  to  frtill 
Lord,  our  only  prayer  shall  be, 

"  Miserere,  Domine  I " 

"Miserere,  Domine  1" 
Thick  the  air  with  death  and  sin  t 
Days  of  wrath  are  ushered  in ! 
Doom  and  judgment  now  begin  1 
Thou  our  Uock,  onr  Refuge  be. 
Miserere,  Domine  I " 

"  Miserere,  Domine  I " 
Heroes'  blood  against  us  cries ; 
On  our  souls  the  dark  stain  lies; 
Our  hands  bound  the  sacrifice, 
from  our  evil  set  us  free  I 

"Miserere,  Domine! " 

"  Miserere,  Domine  I " 
One  man  for  the  people  dies, 
Seeing,  with  prophetic  eyes. 
Only  thus  Thy  Truth  can  rise. 
Help  us,  Lord,  that  truth  to  see ; 

"  Miserere,  Domine  J " 

"  Miserere,  Domine  I " 
17e  must  reap  as  we  have  sown  I 
Thoughtless,  hearties;),  faithless  grown  ; 
Seeking  self,  and  self  alone. 
In  this  day  Thy  wrath  we  see, 

"  Miserere,  Domine  1 " 

"Miserere,  Domine ! " 
Tolling  bell,  with  dreary  sound ! 
Martial  tramp  along  the  gn>und  1 
Shuddering  thousands  gathered  round  t 
Bitter  shall  the  harvest  be ! 

"  Miserere,  Domine ! " 

WOBCESTZB,  December  2,  1859. 


"Miserere,  Domine! " 
May  we,  'nenth  the  gallows'  shade. 
Sacred  now  and  holy  made, 
Xieam  the  law  this  Saint  obeyed. 
For  our  faithlessness  to  Thee, 

"  Miserere,  Domine  1 " 

"  Miserere,  Domine ! " 
On  our  hearts  that  gallows  weighs; 
But  its  wood,  in  coming  days. 
Well  may  set  the  land  ablaze. 
Give  OF,  Lord,  that  light  to  see! 

"  Miserere,  Domine ! " 

"Miserere,  Domine ! " 
Darker  grows  the  hateful  stain ; 
Heavier  weighs  the  cursid  chain ; 
Bitterer  far  thy  children's  pain. 
Lord,  their  cry  ascends  to  Thee, 
"Miserere,  Domine  1 " 

"  Miserere,  Domine  I " 
Tolling  bells  accuse  again. 
Idle  seem  our  prayers,  and  vain, 
While  onr  hauds  thy  work  disdain, 
Work  to  set  our  brethren  free, 

"  Miserere,  Domine! " 

"  Miserere,  Domino  I." 
Make  us  instruments  to  save  I 
May  we,  o'er  a  hero's  grave, 
Learn  the  lesson  of  tho  bravo. 
We,  In  weakness,  come  to  Thee, 

"Miserere,  Domine! " 

"Miserere,  Domine! " 
From  the  darkness  of  this  hour, 
When  the  clouds  of  evil  lower. 
May  the  dawn  break  forth  in  power! 
Answered  then  our  prayer  shall  be, 

"  Miserere,  Domino ! " 


I. 


Services  at  Concord. 

THE  martyrdom  of  John  Brown  was  most  worthily  cele- 
brated at  Concord,  Massachusetts.  The  town  which  in- 
augurated the  first  American  "  Insurrection  "  was  faithful  to  its 
traditions  in  doing  honor  to  the  first  martyr  of  the  second  and 
the  grander  Revolution  ;  and,  unlike  other  towns,  equally  zeal- 
ous for  justice,  and  equally  desirous  of  doing  honor  to  the  merits 
and  memory  of  John  Brown,  it  possessed  more  men  by  nature 
fit  for  the.  occasion,  than  any  other  community  of  the  same 
population  in  the  Union. 

The  meeting  at  Concord  assembled  in  the  Town  Hall  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  Dec.  2d,  and  was  called  to  order 
by  the  Hon.  Simon  Brown,  who  said  that  on  this  day  Virginia 
had  inflicted  on  herself  a  worse  blow  than  all  her  enemies  had 
ever  done  or  could  do ;  she  had,  under  the  forms  of  law,  mur 
dered  her  truest  friend. 

Rev.  E.  H.  Sears,  of  Wayland,  offered  up  the  following 

PRAYER. 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  we  desire  at  this  hour  to  gather  our- 
pelves  closer  within  thine  omnipotence  and  mercy ;  for  when  a  sense 
of  this  world's  oppressions  and  wrongs  hangs  heavily  upon  us,  to 
whom  shall  we  go  but  unto  thee  ?  Thou  dost  luiite  us  to  thyself  by 
,tie3  of  filial  love,  and  to  our  fellow-men  by  the  ties  of  a  common  broth- 
erhood, for  thou  hast  given  us  all  one  human  heart.  Look  down  at 
this  hour  from  thy  holy  heavens,  and  extend  thy  protecting  providence 
37#  ■  (437) 


438 


Services  at  Concord. 


around  one  who  is  passing  from  this  world  to  another  by  the  hand  of 
violence,  and  from  the  midst  of  cruel  men.  Away  from  the  dismal 
surroundings,  away  from  the  scaffold,  away  from  the  scoffings  and  the 
strife  of  tongues,  open,  we  beseech  thee,  a  clear  pathway  to  that  world 
where  there  is  no  hatred  and  wrong ;  where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  slave  is  free  from  his  master.  And  remember,  we 
pray  thee,  those  whose  hearts  are  now  made  to  break  and  to  bleed  — 
those  who  at  this  hour  are  called  to  widowhood  and  orphanage ;  fold 
them  tenderly  in  the  arms  of  thy  providence,  and  lead  them  and  pre- 
serve them.  And  remember  the  race  who  have  been  trodden  down  for 
ages  imder  the  heel  of  oppression  and  wrong,  and  let  their  redemption 
come.  Let  those  who  have  passed  on  through  fire  and  blood,  plead 
for  them  with  thee.  Let  the  blood  of  all  thy  martyrs  for  liberty,  from 
ancient  times  down  to  this  hour,  cry  to  thee  from  the  ground  till  the 
slave  rises  from  his  thraldom  into  the  full  glory  of  manhood.  And 
when  that  day  shall  come,  let  it  not  be  through  the  chaos  of  revolu- 
tions, not  by  staining  this  fair  earth  with  the  blood  of  brothers,  but 
let  thy  spirit  descend  in  its  gentleness,  and  change  the  heart  of  the 
master,  and  melt  off  the  fetters  of  the  slave.  And  O,  at  this  dark 
hour,  give  us  a  new  consecration  of  ourselves  to  the  cause  of  human- 
ity !  By  Him  who  came  from  heaven  and  clothed  himself  in  our 
nature,  the  nature  of  the  humblest  man  that  lives,  that  he  might  raise 
it  up  and  glorify  it ;  by  him  who  took  up  into  his  experience  all  the 
wants  and  woes  of  our  common  humanity ;  by  him  who  speaks  from 
all  thy  lowly  ones,  «» Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  to  one  of  the  least  of  these, 
ye  did  it  unto  me,"  —  by  all  these  motives  may  we  take  with  fresh  zeal 
the  vow  of  self-devotion  to  the  cause  of  God  and  man.  And  to  thee, 
in  Jesus  Christ,  be  all  the  glory  forever.  Amen. 

This  hymn  was  then  sung  by  a  choir,  accompanied  by  the 
music  of  an  organ,  which  had  been  placed  in  the  Hall  for 
this  occasion : 

HYMN. 

Go  to  the  grave  in  all  thy  glorious  prime, 

In  full  activity  of  zeal  and  power ; 
A  Christian  cannot  die  before  his  time  ; 

The  Lord's  appointment  is  his  servant's  hour. 

Go  to  the  grave ;  at  noon  from  labor  cease  ; 

Best  on  thy  sheaves ;  the  harvest  task  is  done ; 
Come  from  the  heat  of  battle,  and  in  peace. 

Soldier,  go  home ;  with  thee  the  fight  is  won. 


Services  at  Concord. 


439 


Go  to  the  grave ;  for  there  thy  Saviour  lay 
In  death's  embrace,  ere  he  arose  on  high ; 

And  all  the  ransomed,  by  that  narrow  way 
Pass  to  eternal  life  beyond  the  sky. 

Go  to  the  grave ;  no,  take  thy  seat  above ; 

Be  thy  pure  spirit  present  with  the  Lord ; 
Where  thou  for  feith  and  hope  hast  perfect  love, 

And  open  vision  for  the  written  word. 

MR.  THOREAU'S  REMARKS. 
Heney  D.  Thoreau  then  rose  and  said :  So  universal 
and  widely  related  is  any  transcendent  moral  greatness,  and 
60  nearly  identical  with  greatness  every  where  and  in  every 
age, — -as  a  pyramid  contracts  the  nearer  you  approach  its 
apex, —  that,  when  I  now  look  over  my  commonplace  book  of 
poetry,  I  find  that  the  best  of  it  is  oftenest  applicable,  in  part 
or  wholly,  to  the  case  of  Captain  Brown.  Only  what  is  true, 
and  strong,  and  solemnly  earnest,  will  recommend  itself  to  our 
mood  at  this  time.  Almost  any  noble  verse  may  be  read, 
either  as  his  elegy  or  eulogy,  or  be  made  the  text  of  an  ora- 
tion on  him.  Indeed,  such  are  now  discovered  to  be  the  parts 
of  a  universal  liturgy,  applicable  to  those  rare  cases  of  heroes 
and  martyrs  for  which  the  ritual  of  no  church  has  provided. 
This  is  the  formula  established  on  high — their  burial  service 
—  to  which  every  great  genius  has  contributed  its  stinza  or 
line.   As  Marvell  wrote : 

"When  the  sword  glitters  o'er  the  judge's  head. 
And  fear  has  coward  churchmen  silenced. 
Then  is  the  poet's  time ;  'tis  then  he  draws, 
And  single  fights  forsaken  virtue's  cause ; 
He,  when  the  wheel  of  empire  whirleth  back. 
And  though  the  world's  disjointed  axle  crack. 
Sings  still  of  ancient  rights  and  better  times. 
Seeks  suffering  good,  arraigns  successful  crimes. 

The  sense  of  grand  poetry,  read  by  the  light  of  this  event, 
is  brought  out  distinctly  like  an  invisible  writing  held  to  the 
fire: 


44P 


Services  at  Concord. 


All  heads  must  come 

To  the  cold  tomb,  — 

Only  the  actions  of  the  just 

Smell  sweet  and  blossom  in  the  dust. 

"We  have  heard  that  the  Boston  lady*  who  recently  visited 
our  hero  in  prison,  found  him  wearing  still  the  ctothes,  all  cut 
and  torn  by  sabres  and  by  bayonet  thrusts,  in  which  he  had 
been  taken  prisoner ;  and  thus  he  had  gone  to  his  trial ;  and 
without  a  hat.  She  spent  her  time  in  prison  mending  those 
clothes,  and,  for  a  memento,  brought  home  a  pin  covered 
with  blood. 

What  iEire  the  clothes  that  endure  ? 

The  garments  lasting  evermore 
Are  works  of  mercy  to  the  poor ; 
And  neither  tetter,  time,  nor  moth 
Shall  fray  that  silk  or  fret  this  cloth. 

The  v/ell-known  verses  called  "  The  Soul's  Errand,"  sup- 
posed, by  some,  to  have  been  written  by  Sir  "Walter  Raleigh, 
when  lie  was  expecting  to  be  executed  the  following  day,  are 
at  least  worthy  of  such  an  origin,  and  are  equally  aj)plicable 
to  the  present  case.    Hear  them  : 

THE  soul's  errand. 

Go,  soul,  the  body's  guest, 
Upon  a  thankless  arrant ; 
Fear  not  to  touch  the  best ; 
ITie  truth  shall  be  thy  warrant : 
Go,  since  I  needs  must  die. 
And  give  the  world  the  lie. 

Go,  tell  the  Court  it  glows 

And  shines  like  rotten  wood  ; 
Go,  tell  the  Church  it  shows 
"What's  good,  and  doth  no  good ; 
If  church  and  court  reply, 
Give  church  and  court  the  lie. 


♦  The  wife  of  Judge  RusselL 


Services  at  Concord. 


Tell  potentates  they  live 

Acting  by  other's  actions ; 
Not  loved  unless  they  give, 
Not  strong  but  by  their  factions : 
Jf  potentates  reply. 
Give  potentates  the  lie. 

Tell  men  of  high  condition, 
That  rule  affairs  of  state. 
Their  purpose  is  ambition. 
Their  practice  only  hate ; 
And  if  they  once  reply, 
Spare  not  to  give  the  lie. 

Tell  Zeal  it  lacks  devotion ; 

Tell  Love  it  is  but  lust ; 
Tell  Time  it  is  but  motion ; 
Tell  Flesh  it  is  but  dust ; 
And  -wish  them  not  reply, 
For  thou  must  give  the  lie. 

Tell  Age  it  daily  -wasteth ; 

Tell  Honor  how  it  alters ; 
Tell  Beauty  how  she  blasteth ; 
Tell  Favor  how  she  falters ; 
And,  as  they  shall  reply, 
Give  each  of  them  the  lie. 

Tell  Fortxine  of  her  blindness ; 

Tell  Nature  of  decay ; 
Tell  Friendship  of  unkindness ; 
Tell  Justice  of  delay ; 
And  if  they  dare  reply. 
Then  give  them  all  the  lie. 

And  when  thou  hast,  as  I 

Commanded  thee,  done  blabbing, 
Although  to  give  the  lie 

Deserves  no  less  than  stabbing, 
Yet,  stab  at  thee  who  will, 
No  stab  the  soul  can  kiU. 


442  Services  at  Concord. 

"When  I  am  dead, 

Let  not  the  day  be  wiit," 
Nor  bell  be  tolled;  * 

"  Love  will  remember  it " 
When  hate  is  cold. 

Mr.  Thoreau  also  read  these  passages,  selected  for  the  occa> 
sion  by  another  citizen  of  Concord : 

COLLINS. 
How  sleep  the  brave,  who  sink  to  rest. 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest ! 
"When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold,  ' 
Beturns  to  deck  their  hallowed  mould, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  Fairy  hands  their  knell  is  rung. 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung ; 
There  Honor  comes,  a  pilgrim  gray, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay. 
And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there. 

SCHILLER. 
He  is  gone,  he  is  dust ; 

He  the  more  fortunate ;  yea,  he  hath  finished; 

To  him  there  is  no  longer  any  future ; 

His  life  is  bright — bright  without  spot  it  was. 

And  cannot  cease  to  be.   No  ominous  hour 

Knocks  at  his  door  with  tidings  of  mishap. 

Far  off  is  he,  above  desire  and  fear ; 

No  more  submitted  to  the  change  and  chance 

Of  the  unsteady  planets.    O,  'tis  well 

With  him  ;  but  v»ho  knows  what  the  coming  hour. 

Veiled  in  thick  darkness,  brings  for  vis  } 

■WORDSWORTH. 

May  we  not  •with  sorrow  say, 

A  few  strong  instincts,  and  a  few  plain  rules, 

*  The  selectmen  of  the  town,  not  knowing  bat  they  bad  sutbority,  tefiued  to  tiUknt 
tt«  bdl  to  1)0  tolled  on  tbb  occasion. 


Services  at  Concord. 


Among  the  herdsmen  of  the  hills,  have  -wrought 
More  for  mankind  at  this  unhappy  day, 
Than  all  the  pride  of  intellect  and  thought  ? 

TENNYSON. 
Ah,  God !  for  a  man  with  heart,  head,  hand, 
Like  some  of  the  simple  great  ones  gone 

Forever  and  ever  by ; 
One  still  strong  man  in  a  blatant  land, 
Whatever  they  call  him  what  care  I,  — 
Aristocrat,  democrat,  autocrat,  —  one 
Who  can  rule,  and  dare  not  lie. 

GEORGE  CHAPMAN. 

There  is  no  danger  to  a  man  who  knows 
Where  life  and  death  is ;  there's  not  any  law 
Exceeds  his  knowledge,  neither  is  it  needful 
That  he  should  stoop  to  any  other  law ; 
He  goes  before  them,  and  commands  them  all. 
That  to  himself  is  a  law  rational. 

SCHILLER. 
At  the  approach 
Of  extreme  peril,  when  a  hollow  image 
Is  found  a  hollow  image,  and  no  more, 
Then  falls  the  power  into  the  mighty  hands 
Of  Nature,  of  the  spirit  giant-borix 
Who  listens  only  to  himself,  knows  nothing 
Of  stipulations,  duties,  reverences, 
And,  like  the  emancipated  force  of  fire 
TJnmastered,  scorches,  ere  it  reaches  them, 
Their  fine-spun  webs. 

WOTTON. 
How  happy  is  he  bom  and  taught 

Who  serveth  not  another's  will. 
Whose  armor  is  his  honest  thought. 

And  simple  truth  his  utmost  skill !  — 

Whose  passions  not  his  masters  are, 
WLose  soul  is  still  prepared  for  death, 

Not  tied  unto  the  world  with  care 
Of  princes'  ear  or  vulgar  breath }  •— 


444 


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Wbo  hath  his  life  i!rom  rumors  freed, 
Whose  conscience  is  his  strong  retreat, 

"Whose  state  can  neither  flatterers  feed, 
Nor  ruin  make  oppressors  great ;  — 

Who  envies  none  whom  chance  doth  raise, 

Or  vice ;  who  never  understood 
How  deepest  wounds  are  given  with  praise ; 

Nor  rules  of  state,  but  rules  of  good ;  — 

This  man  is  freed  from  servile  bands 

Of  hope  to  rise  or  fear  to  fall ; 
Lord  of  hunself,  though  not  of  lands. 

And  having  nothing,  yet  hath  all. 

TACITUS.* 

You,  Agricola,  are  fortunate,  not  only  because  your  life  was  glori- 
ous, but  because  your  death  was  timely.  As  they  tell  us  who  heard 
your  last  words,  unchanged  and  willing  you  accepted  your  fate  ;  as 
if,  OS  far  as  in  your  power,  you  would  make  the  emperor  appear  inno- 
cent. But,  besides  the  bitterness  of  having  lost  a  parent,  it  adds  to  our 
grief,  that  it  was  not  permitted  us  to  minister  to  your  health,  ...  to 
gaze  on  your  countenance,  and  receive  your  last  embrace ;  surely,  we 
might  have  caught  some  words  and  commands  which  we  could  have 
treastured  in  the  inmost  part  of  our  souls.  This  is  our  pain,  this  our 
wound.  .  .  .  You  were  buried  with  the  fewer  tears,  and  in  your  last 
earthly  light,  yoiur  eyes  looked  around  for  something  which  they  did 
not  see. 

If  there  is  any  abode  for  the  spirits  of  the  pious ;  if,  as  wise  men 
suppose,  great  souls  are  not  extinguished  with  the  body,  may  you  rest 
placidly,  and  call  your  family  from  weak  regrets,  and  womanly  la- 
ments, to  the  contemplation  of  your  virtues,  which  must  not  be 
lamented,  either  silently  or  aloud.  Let  us  honor  you  by  our  admi- 
ration, rather  than  by  short-lived  praises,  and,  if  nature  aid  us,  by 
our  emulation  of  you.  That  is  true  honor,  that  the  piety  of  whoever 
is  most  akin  to  you.  This  also  I  would  teach  your  family,  so  to  ven- 
erate your  memory,  as  to  call  to  mind  all  your  actions  and  words,  and 
embrace  your  character  and  the  form  of  yc""  soul,  rather  than  of  your 
body ;  not  because  I  think  that  statues  which  are  made  of  marble  or 
brass  are  to  be  condemned,  but  as  the  features  of  men,  so  images  of 
the  features,  are  frail  and  perishable.  The  form  of  the  8oul  is  eternal ; 


*  Trsn9'.ated  by  Mr,  Tborean. 


Services  at  Concord. 


445 


and  this  we  cnn  retain  and  express,  not  by  a  foreign  material  and  art, 
but  by  our  own  lives.  Whatever  of  Agricola  we  have  loved,  whatever 
we  have  admired,  remains,  and  will  remain,  in  the  minds  of  men,  and 
the  records  of  history,  through  the  eternity  of  ages.  For  oblivion  will 
overtake  many  of  the  ancients,  as  if  they  were  inglorious  and  ignoble : 
Agricola,  described  and  transmitted  to  posterity,  will  survive. 

Mb.  Charles  Bowers  followed  Mr.  Thoreau,  and  read 
the  celebrated  protest  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  third  President  of  the  United 
States,  a  Virginian,  a  historian  of  Virginia,  and  the  prede- 
cessor of  Governor  Wise  in  the  gubernatorial  chair  of  that 
State ;  in  which,  it  will  be  seen,  he  seems  to  have  anticipated 
something  like  what  has  lately  occurred : 

PROTEST  OP  JEPPEKSON. 

The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exer- 
cise of  the  most  bo":terous  passions,  the  most  unremitting  despotism 
on  the  one  part,  and  degrading  submission  on  the  other.  .  .  .  The 
man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  unde- 
praved  by  such  circumstances.  And  with  what  execration  should  the 
statesman  be  loaded,  who,  permitting  one  half  the  citizens  thus  to 
trample  on  the  rights  of  the  other,  transforms  those  into  despots  and 
these  into  enemies  — destroys  the  morals  of  the  one  part,  and  the  amor 
patrics  of  the  other !  And  can  the  liberties  of  a  nation  be  deemed  se- 
cure, when  we  have  removed  their  only  firm  basis — a  conviction  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  that  these  liberties  are  the  gift  of  God  ?  that  they 
are  not  to  be  violated  but  with  his  wrath  ?  Indeed,  I  tremble  for  my 
country  when  I  reflect  that  God  is  just  —  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep 
forever ;  that,  considering  numbers,  nature  and  natural  means  only, 
a  revolution  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  an  exchange  of  situation,  is  among 
possible  events  ;  that  it  may  become  probable  by  supernatural  interfer- 
ence !  The  Almighty  has  no  attribute  tliat  can  take  side  with  us  in 
such  a  contest. 

Hon.  John  S.  "Keyes  said:  In  order  to  give  this  assembly 
a  picture  of  the  event  now  taking  place  in  Virginia,  I  propose 
to  read  to  you  an  account  of  a  scene  in  some  respects  similar, 
which  occurred  in  Edinburgh  some  two  hundred  years  ago : 

88 


Services  at  Concord. 


THE  EXECUTION  OP  MONTROSE.* 

They  brought  him  to  the  Watergate, 

Hard  bound  with  hempen  span, 
As  though  they  held  a  lion  there, 

And  not  a  fenceless  man. 
They  set  hira  high  upon  a  cart  — 

The  hangman  rode  below  — ■ 
They  drew  his  hands  behind  his  back, 

And  bared  his  noble  brow. 
Then  as  a  hound  is  slipped  from  leash. 

They  cheered  the  common  throng, 
And  blew  the  note  with  yell  and  shout, 

And  bade  him  pass  along. 

It  would  have  made  a  brave  man's  heart 

Grow  sad  and  sick,  that  day, 
To  watch  the  keen,  malignant  eyes 

Bent  down  on  that  array. 
Then  stood  the  "Whig  south  country  lords 

In  balcony  and  bow  ; 
There  sat  their  gaunt  and  withered  dames^ 

And  their  daughters  all  a-row  ; 
And  every  open  window 

Was  full  as  full  might  be 
With  black-robed  Covenanting  carles. 

That  goodly  sport  to  seft ! 

Sut  when  he  came,  though  pale  and  wan. 

He  looked  so  great  and  high. 
So  noble  was  his  manly  front. 

So  calm  his  steadfast  eye,  — 
The  rabble  rout  forbore  to  shout. 

And  each  man  held  his  breath. 
For  well  they  knew  the  hero's  soul 

Was  face  to  face  with  death. 
And  then  a  mournful  shudder 

Through  all  the  people  crept, 
And  some  that  carae  to  scoff  at  him 

Now  turned  aside  and  wept. 

.But  onward  —  always  onward  — 
In  silence  and  in  gloom, 

*  From  Ajtonn's  "  Lsyi  of  tba  So6ttiib  CkTaltorf." 


Services  at  Concord. 


The  dreary  pageant  labored, 
Till  it  reached  the  place  of  doom. 

And  then  uprose  the  great  Montrose 

In  the  middle  of  the  room  — 
•«  I  have  not  sought  in  battle-field 

A  wreath  of  such  renown, 
Nor  dared  I  hope,  on  my  dying  day, 

To  win  the  martyr's  crown. 

* 

"  There  is  a  chamber  far  away 

Where  sleep  the  good  and  brave, 
But  a  better  place  ye  have  named  for  me 

Than  by  my  father's  grave. 
For  truth  and  right,  'gainst  tyrants'  might 

This  hand  hath  always  striven, 
And  ye  raise  it  up  for  a  witness  still 

In  the  eye  of  earth  and  heaven. 
Then  nail  my  head  on  yonder  tower  — 

Give  every  town  a  limb  — 
And  God,  who  made,  shall  gather  them ; 

I  go  from  you  to  Him  I " 

The  morning  dawned  full  darkly. 

The  rain  came  flashing  down. 
And  the  jagged  streak  of  the  levin-bolt 

Lit  up  the  gloomy  town : 
The  thunder  crashed  across  the  heaven, 

The  fatal  hour  was  come  ; 
Yet  aye  broke  in,  with  muffled  beat, 

ITie  'larum  of  the  drum. 
There  was  madness  on  the  earth  beloyr. 

And  anger  in  the  sky ; 
And  yoimg  and  old,  and  rich  and  poor, 

Came  forth  to  see  him  die. 

Ah,  God !  that  ghastly  gibbet ! 

How  dismal  'tis  to  see 
The  great,  tall,  spectral  skeleton, 

The  ladder  and  the  tree ! 
Hark !  hark !  it  is  the  clash  of  arms  — - 

The  bells  begin  to  toll  — 
«•  He  is  coming !   He  is  coming ! " 

"  God'e  mercy  on  his  soul ! " 


Services  at  Concord. 


One  last,  long  peal  of  thunder  — 

The  clouds  are  ckared  away. 
And  the  glorious  sun  once  more  looks  down 

Amidst  the  dazzling  day.  / 

*'  He  is  coming !  he  is  coming ! " 

Like  a  bridegroom  from  his  room, 
Came  the  hero  from  his  prison 

To  the  scaffold  and  the  doom. 
There  was  glorj"  on  his  forehead, 

There  was  lustre  in  his  eye, 
And  he  never  walked  to  battle 

More  proudly  than  to  die ; 
There  was  color  in  his  visage, 

Though  the  cheeks  of  all  were  wan, 
And  they  marvelled  as  they  saw  him  pass, 

That  great  and  goodly  man ! 

He  moimted  up  the  scaffold, 

And  he  turned  him  to  the  crowd ; 
But  they  dared  not  ti  ust  the  people, 

So  he  might  not  speak  aloud. 
Bat  he  looked  upon  the  heavens, 

And  they  were  clear  and  blue, 
And  in  the  liquid  ether 

The  eye  of  God  shone  through ; 
Yet  a  black  and  murky  battlement 

Lay  resting  on  the  hill. 
As  though  the  thunder  slept  withiii— ■ 

All  else  was  calm  and  stiU. 

The  grim  Geneva  ministers 

With  anxious  scowl  drew  near. 
As  you  have  seen  the  ravens  flock 

Around  the  dying  deer. 
He  would  not  deign  them  word  nor  sign, 

But  alone  he  bent  his  knee, 
And  exiled  his  face  for  Christ's  dear  grace, 

Beneath  the  gallows  tree. 
Then  radiant  and  serene  he  rose. 

And  cast  his  cloak  away ; 
For  he  had  ta'en  his  latest  look 

Of  earth,  and  sun,  and  day. 


Services  at  Concord. 

A  beam  of  light  fell  o'er  him 

Like  a  glory  round  the  shriven, 
And  he  climbed  the  lofty  ladder 

As  it  were  the  path  to  heaven. 
Then  came  a  flash  from  out  the  cloud. 

And  a  stunning  th\mder-roll ; 
And  no  man  dared  to  look  aloft ; 

Fear  was  on  every  soul. 
There  -was  another  heavy  sound, 

A  hush,  and  then  a  groan ; 
And  darkness  swept  across  the  sky  — 

The  work  of  death  v/as  done ! 

A,  Bronson  Al  ^ott  then  offered  these  sentences  from 

PLATO. 

An  upright  man  is  a  perpetual  magistrate. 

Jupiter,  fearing  for  our  race,  lest  it  should  entirely  perish,  by  reason 
of  injuring  one  another  from  not  possessing  the  political  art,  but  only 
the  military,  sent  Hermes  to  carry  Shame  and  Justice  to  men,  that 
they  might  be  ornaments  of  cities  and  bonds  to  cement  friendship. 
Hermes,  therefore,  asked  Jupiter  in  what  manner  he  was  to  give 
Shame  and  Justice  to  men.  *«  AVhether,  as  the  arts  have  been  dis- 
tributed, so  shall  I  distribute  these,  also  ?  For  they  have  been  dis- 
tributed thus :  one  man  who  possesses  the  medicinal  art  is  sufficient 
for  many  not  skilled  in  it.  And  so  with  other  craftsmen.  Shall  I 
thus  dispense  Shame  and  Justice  among  men,  or  distribute  them  to 
all  ? "  To  all,"  said  Jupiter,  •«  and  let  all  partake  of  them  ;  for  there 
■would  be  no  cities  if  a  few  only  were  to  partake  of  them,  as  of  other 
arts.  Moreover,  enact  a  law  in  my  name,  that  whoever  is  unable  to 
partake  of  Shame  and  Justice,  shall  be  put  to  death  as  a  pest  of  a  city." 

The  next  exercise  was  the  recital  of  the  following  original 

ODE. 

O  Brother,  brave,  and  just,  and  wise  ! 
.   Whose  death  imjust  we  mourn  to-day, 
Thy  name  shall  live  till  Freedom  dies 
No  tyrant  can  thy  spirit  slay  ! 

The  Hero's  pp,ge,  the  Martyr's  scroll. 
Since  men  for  truth  and  virtue  bled, 
36* 


449 


450 


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Bears  record  of  no  manlier  soul 
Than  thine  that  even  now  has  fled. 

Unworthy  land  that  knew  thee  not ! 

That  Lade  her  best  and  bravest  die ! 
Be  hers  the  shame  —  thy  glorio-is  lot 

Admits  thy  soul  to  God's  free  sky. 

His  constant  voice  inspired  thy  deed, 
His  clear  command  thy  heart  obeyed, 

His  hand  shall  give  thy  deathless  meed  , 
When  thou  and  we  in  dust  are  laid. 

The  prattling  caild  shall  lisp  thy  praise. 

The  aged  sire  thy  cause  approve ; 
Forbidden  to  prolong  thy  days, 

Our  love  shall  yet  thy  shame  remove. 

Ralph  "Waldo  Emerson  said  that  the  part  assigned  to 
him  in  the  services  of  the  day,  was  to  read  portions  of  the 
conversations,  speeches,  and  letters  of  John  Brown  —  an  ob- 
scure Connecticut  farmer,  who,  taking  the  Gospel  in  earnest, 
and  devoting  himself  to  the  uplifting  of  a  despised  race,  had 
suddenly  become  the  most  prominent  person  in  the  country. 
He  then  read  extracts  from  the  conversation  between  Senator 
Mason  and  John  Brown,  and  from  Captain  Cook's  Confession ; 
the  last  speech  of  John  Brown  in  Court ;  his  letter  to  Rev. 
Mr.  Vaill,  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut ;  his  "  letter  to  a  Chris- 
tian Conservative,"  and  a  passage  from  his  reply  to  Mrs. 
Chiid.« 

Mb.  Alcotx  then  read  the 

SERVICE  FOR  THE  DEATH  OP  A  MARTYR. 
In  introducing  this  new  and  worthy  liturgy,  he  said  that  on 
occasions  like  the  present,  when  the  heart  and  the  conscience 
are  so  deeply  moved,  silence  seems  better  than  speech.  Yet 
some  voice  must  be  found  for  the  sentiment  so  universal  to- 

*  I  do  not  wish  to  repeat  the  same  quotations  in  any  of  my  booko ;  and,  as  all  the 
paiisnges  ix-ad  by  Mr.  Emerson  appear  in  niy  Life  of  John  Brown,  in  the  chnpters 
entitled  "Ihe  Political  Inquisitors,"  "Condemned  to  die,"  "Lying  in  Wait,"  and 
«  The  Conqaering  Pen,"  I  omit  them  here. 


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451 


day ;  and  accordingly  I  now  read  to  you  these  leaves  of  wis- 
dom from 

JESUS  CHRIST. 

Whatsoever  ye  woiild  that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so 
to  them  :  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets. 
Whether  it  is  lawful  to  ohey  God  or  man,  judge  ye. 

SOLOMON;* 

.  The  ungodly  said,  reasoning  with  themselves,  but  not  aright.  Our 
life  is  short  and  tedious,  and  in  the  death  of  a  man  there  is  no  remedy ; 
neither  was  there  any  man  known  to  have  returned  from  the  grave. 

Let  us  oppress  the  poor  righteous  man ;  let  us  not  spare  the  widow, 
nor  reverence  the  ancient  gray  hairs  of  the  aged. 

Let  our  strength  be  the  law ;  for  that  which  is  feeble  is  found  to  be 
nothing  worth. 

Therefore  let  us  lie  in  wait  for  the  righteous ;  because  he  is  not  for 
our  turn,  and  he  is  clean  contrary  to  our  doings :  he  upbraideth  us 
with  our  offending  the  law- 
He  professeth  to  have  the  knowledge  of  God ;  and  he  calleth  him- 
self the  child  of  the  Lord.   He  was  made  to  reprove  our  thoughts. 

He  is  grievous  unto  us  even  to  behold :  for  his  life  is  not  like  other 
men's,  his  ways  are  of  another  fashion. 

We  are  esteemed  of  him  as  counterfeits ;  he  abstaineth  from  our 
ways  as  from  filthiness ;  he  pronounceth  the  end  of  the  just  to  be 
blessed,  and  maketh  his  boast  that  God  is  his  father. 

Let  us  see  if  his  words  be  true,  and  let  us  prove  what  shall  happen 
in  the  end  of  him. 

For,  if  the  just  man  be  the  Son  of  God,  He  wi"  1  help  him,  and  deliver 
him  from  the  hand  of  his  enemies. 

Let  us  examine  him  with  despitefulness  and  torture,  that  we  may  know 
his  meekness  and  prove  his  patience. 

Let  us  condemn  him  with  a  shameful  death ;  for  by  his  own  saying 
he  shall  be  respected. 

Such  things  they  did  imagine  and  were  deceived;  for  their  own 
wickedness  had  blinded  them. 

They,  the  people,  stood  up,  and  the  rulers  took  cotmsel  together 
against  the  Lord  and  against  his  Anointed. 

They  cast  their  heads  together  with  one  consent,  and  were  confed- 
erate against  him. 

He  heard  the  blasphemy  of  the  multitude,  and  fear  was  on  every 
side,  while  they  conspired  together  against  him  to  take  away  his  life. 

•  Chiefly  from  the  «  WiBdom  of  Solomon." 


45^  '  Servics:s  at  Concord. 

They  spake  against  him  -with  false  tongues,  and  compassed  him 
about  with  -words  of  hatred. 
They  rewarded  him  evil  for  good. 

They  took  their  counsel  together,  saj-ing,  God  hath  forsaken  him  : 
persecute  him  and  take  him,  for  there  is  none  to  deliver. 

Let  the  sentence  of  guiltiness  proceed  against  him,  and  now  that  he 
lieth,  let  him  rise  up  no  more. 

False  witnesses,  also,  did  rise  up  against  him ;  they  laid  to  his 
charge  things  that  he  knew  not.* 

Then  shall  the  righteous  man  stand  in  great  boldness  before  the  face 
of  such  as  have  afflicted  him  and  made  no  account  of  his  labors. 

"  For  the  sins  of  the  people  and  the  iniquities  of  the  rulers  they  shed 
the  blood  of  the  just.  In  their  anger  they  slew  a  man ;  the  man  whom 
Thoc  hadst  made  so  strongly  for  Thine  Own  Self."  —  Lamentations. 

He,  being  made  perfect,  in  a  short  time  fulfilled  a  long  time. 

For  his  soul  pleased  the  Lord ;  therefore,  hasted  He  to  take  him 
away  from  among  the  Wicked. 

This  the  People  saw  and  understood  it  not,  neither  laid  they  up  this 
in  their  minds  that  His  grace  and  mercy  is  with  His  saints,  and  that 
He  hath  respect  unto  His  Chosen. 

"When  they  see  it  they  si  all  be  troubled  with  terrible  fear,  and  shall 
be  amazed  at  the  strangeness  of  his  salvation,  so  far  beyond  all  that 
they  looked  for. 

And  they,  repenting  and  groaning  for  anguish  of  spirit,  shall  say 
within  themselves,  This  was  he  whom  we  had  sometime  in  derision 
and  a  proverb  of  reproach. 

"We,  fools,  accounted  his  life  madness  and  his  end  to  be  without  honor. 

How  is  he  numbered  among  the  children  of  God,  and  his  lot  is 
among  the  saints ! 

"What  hath  pride  profited  us  ?  or  what  good  hath  riches  with  oiu: 
vaunting  brought  us  ? 

All  those  things  are  passed  away  like  a  sliadow,  and  as  a  post  that 
hasteth  by ; 

And  as  a  ship  that  passeth  over  the  waves  of  the  water ; 

Or  as  when  a  bird  hath  flown  through  the  air ; 

Or,  like  as  when  an  arrow  is  shot  at  a  mark,  it  parteth  the  air, 
which  immediately  cometh  together  again,  so  that  a  man  cannot  know 
where  it  went  through  ; 

Even  so  we,  in  like  manner,  as  soon  as  we  were  bom,  began  to 
draw  to  our  end,  and  had  no  sign  of  virtue  to  show ;  but  were  con- 
simied  iu  our  own  wickedness. 


«  The  last  elg^t  Terses  lire  from  the  Paalter. 


Services  at  Concord. 


453 


But  the  righteous  live  forevermore ;  their  reward,  also,  is  with  the 
Lord  ;  and  the  care  of  them  is  with  the  Most  High. 

Therefore  shall  they  receive  a  glorious  kingdom  and  a  beautiful 
crown  from  the  Lord's  hand ;  for  with  his  right  hand  shall  he  cover 
them,  and  with  his  arm  shall  he  protect  them. 

Great  are  Thy  Judgments,  and  cannot  be  expressed ;  therefore  un- 
nurtured souls  have  erred. 

For,  when  unrighteous  men  thought  to  oppress  the  righteous  one, 
they,  being  shut  up  in  their  houses,  the  prisoners  of  dark;:ess,  and 
fettered  with  the  bonds  of  a  long  night,  lay  there  exiled  from  tie 
Eternal  Providence. 

For  while  they  supposed  to  lie  hid  in  their  secret  sins,  they  were 
scattered  imder  a  dark  veil  of  forgetfulness,  being  horribly  astonished 
and  troubled  with  strange  apparitions. 

For  neither  might  the  comer  that  held  them  keep  them  from  fear ; 
but  noises,  as  of  waters  falling  down,  sounded  about  them ;  and  sad 
visions  appeared  unto  them  with  heavy  countenances. 

No  power  of  the  fire  might  give  them  light ;  neither  could  the  bright 
flames  of  the  stars  endure  to  lighten  that  horrible  night. 

Only  there  appeared  unto  them  a  fire  kindled  of  itself,  very  dread- 
ful ;  for,  being  much  terrified,  they  thought  the  things  which  they  saw 
to  be  worse  than  the  sight  they  saw  not. 

Yea,  the  tasting  of  death  touched  the  righteous  also. 

For  then  the  blameless  man  made  haste,  and  stood  forth  to  defend 
them,  and  bringing  the  shield  of  his  proper  ministry,  even  prayer  and 
the  propitiation  of  incense,  set  himself  against  the  wrath,  and  so  brought 
the  calamity  to  an  end,  declaring  that  he  was  Thy  Servant. 

So  he  overcame  the  destroyer,  not  with  the  strength  of  body  or  force 
of  arms,  but  with  a  word  subdued  he  him  that  pimished,  alleging  the 
oaths  and  covenants  made  with  the  Fathers. 

For,  in  all  things,  O  Lord,  Thou  didst  magnify  Thy  Servant  and 
glorify  him ;  neither  didst  Thou  lightly  regard  him,  but  didst  assist 
him  in  every  time  and  place. 

The  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  there  shall 
ja.0  torment  touch  them. 

In  the  sight  of  the  unwise  he  seemed  to  die :  and  his  departure  is 
taken  for  misery,  and  his  going  from  us  to  be  utter  destruction ;  but 
he  is  in  peace. 

For  though  he  be  punished  in  the  sight  of  men,  yet  is  his  hope  full 
of  Lnmortality, 

And,  having  been  a  little  chastised,  he  shall  be  greatly  rewarded ; 
for  God  proved  him  and  found  him  worthy  for  himself. 


454 


Services  at  Concord. 


He  shall  judge  the  natioxis  and  have  dominion  over  the  people,  and 
his  Lord  shall  reign  forever. 

The  following  original  verses,  by  a  gentleman  of  Concord, 
were  then  read  by  Mr.  Brown,  and  sung  by  the  congregation 
standing : 

DIRGE. 

To-day  beside  Potomac's  wave, 

Beneath  Virginia's  sky, 
They  slay  the  man  who  loved  the  slave, 

^d  dared  for  him  to  die. 

The  Pilgrim  Fathers'  earnest  creed, 

Virginia's  ancient  faith, 
Inspired  this  hero's  noblest  deed. 

And  his  reward  is  —  Death ! 

Crreat  Washington's  indignant  shade 

Forever  urged  him  on  — 
He  heard  from  Monticello's  glade 

The  voice  of  Jefferson. 

But  chiefly  on  the  Hebrew  page 

He  read  Jehovah's  law. 
And  this,  from  youth  to  hoary  age. 

Obeyed  with  love  and  awe. 

No  selfish  purpose  armed  his  hand. 

No  passion  aimed  his  blow ; 
How  loyally  he  loved  his  land 

Impartial  Time  shall  show. 

But  now  the  faithful  martyr  dies ; 

His  brave  heart  beats  no  more  ; 
His  soul  ascends  the  equal  skies  ; 

His  earthly  course  is  o'er. 

For  this  we  mourn,  but  not  for  him : 

Like  him,  in  God  we  trust ; 
And  though  our  eyes  with  tears  arc  dim, 

We  know  that  God  is  juat. 


APPENDIX. 


"The  qucRtion — Can  a  man  count  the  cost  of  the  Union?— Is  being  re- 
garded  as  of  much  easier  accomplishment  than  formerly.  Men  arc  opening 
their  eyes  to  the  real  worth  of  the  Union,  and  bringing  their  arithmetic  to  bear 
in  calculating  its  value,  as  it  now  presents  itself,  that  greatest  of  modem  bug* 
bears,  its  dissolution,  having  exploded.  The  question  now  is  not  so  much  the 
cost  of  the  Union,  as  what  it  is  worth  without  freedom  ?  Men  who,  heretofore, 
hare  looked  upon  its  dissolution  as  the  most  disastrojis  event  that  could  befall 
us,  are  coming  to  regard  its  existence,  under  present  circumstances,  as  a  simplo 
question  of  time.  If  slavery  is  to  have  sole  and  unrestricted  bway  iu  the  na- 
tion, resolving  itself  into  a  violent  and  reckless  despotism,  violating  all  consti- 
tutional as  well  as  national  rights,  and  tyrannizing  over  every  man  vrho  treads 
its  domain,  on  suspicion  of  his  being  a  friend  to  human  freedom ;  if  law  and 
orderj  religion  and  justice,  are  to  be  absolutely  disregarded  by  this  power,  all 
reciprocal  obligations  ignored,  or  what  is  worse,  trampled  under  foot,  and  the 
rights  of  flreemen  visiting  the  South  imperilled,  then  let  the  Union « slide ; " 
the  sooner  the  better.  Slavery  is  fast  becoming  a  great,  overreaching  des- 
potism, controlling  presidents,  and  ordering  the  interpretation  of  laws  and 
their  execution  after  its  own  arbitrary  behests.  It  puts  on « airs  •  of  a  despot 
the  most  despotic ;  and  boldly  bids  defiance,  and  threatens  blue  ruin  unless  it  is 
peaceably  permitted  to  have  its  v/ay,  right  or  wrong,  in  the  administration  of 
government.  Presenting  such  a  front,  bearing  such  a  flag,  i;nd  claiming  such 
despotic  exclusiveness,  it  provokes  opposition  and  invites  antagonism.  Shall 
such  a  despotism  as  is  slavery,  and  freedom,  loug  crib  and  cabin  together? 
i'lic  thing  is  quite  impossible  in  the  nature  of  things ;  and  the  signs  of  the 
times  clearly  indicate  that  the  •irrepressible  conflict'  prophecied  by  John 
Randolph,  that  in  fifty  years  tliere  would  be  a  contest  in  this  country  between 
Slavery  and  Anti-Slavery,  in  which  the  latter  would  be  triumphant,  is  rapidly 
approaching  its  fulfilment." 

Fall  River  (^Maia.)  Monitor, 


THE  NORTH  AND  THE  SOUTH. 


iHE  last  historic  act,  and  the  late  public  murder,  of  Captain 


Jl  Joliu  Brown,  have  induced  thousands  to  investigate  their 
duties  to  the  Union  and  the  Slave,  who  never  gave  a  serious 
thought  to  the  subject  before.  When  we  are  called  upon  to  im- 
molate, on  the  heathen  altar  of  Slavery,  such  heroic  Christian 
souls  as  his ;  when  Northern  travellers,  on  the  mere  suspicion 
of  sympathizing  with  the  Oppressed,  are  banished,  lynched, 
or  murdered  by  Southern  mobs ;  when  the  Halls  of  Congress 
resound  with  the  insolent  threat  that,  unless  the  North  elects  a 
sycophant  of  the  Slave  Pens  the  South  will  secede  from  the 
Union  —  it  is  time,  surely,  to  stop  and  inquire  whether  such, 
fearful  sacrifices  are  not  extravagant  and  criminal,  as  well  as 
unconstitutional  and  disgraceful  ill  their  character. 

Let  us  look  at  this  question  of  Disunion  calmly  in  its  every 
aspect.  By  the  Secession  of  the  Southern  States,  and  the 
formation  of  a  Northern  Republic,  we  of  the  North  would  gain 
in  character,  in  influence,  in  strength,  and  in  pocket.  No 
longer  required  to  play  the  part  of  bloodhounds,  by  chasing 
the  poor  fugitive  from  the  foul  oppression  of  the  South ;  no 
longer  deeming  it  necessary  to  vindicate  the  unseemly  atrocity 
of  Human  Slavery  in  a  Democratic  Republic,  Europe  - —  and 
all  Christendom  —  would  yield  to  us  that  deference  and  respect 
due  to  the  citizens  of  a  truly  free  country,  but  which,  now,  is 
very  justly  refused  to  a  flag  that  floats  over  four  millions  of 
Christians,  whom  the  laws  of  the  Southern  Section  convert  into 
articles  of  merchandise. 


39 


(45.-) 


458 


Appendix. 


We  would  gain  Canada  by  losing  the  South;  lose  States 
of  slaves  and  loafers,  to  gain  Provinces  of  freemen  and  indus- 
trious citizens.  In  case  of  war,  the  South  would  be  a  fearful 
burden  to  us ;  for  she  could  not  take  care  of  her  servile  popu- 
lation—  far  less  protect  the  North.  United,  they  may  stand  a 
foreign  war ;  but  divided,  we  would  escape  our  only  danger 
from  it. 

But  morality,  and  honor,  and  considerations  of  future  power, 
are  less  influential,  we  are  told,  in  deciding  the  actions  of  com- 
munities, than  the  multiplication  table,  —  or  appeals  to  the 
pocket.  This  argument  induces  me  to  republish,  a--  ;m  appen- 
dix, the  celebrated  articles  on  the  North  and  South,  or  the  cost 
of  the  Union,  which  appeared  in  the  daily  New  York  Trihme, 
in  1854.  They  ai*e  well  worthy  of  an  attentive  study.  Surely 
it  is  bad  enough  to  be  disgraced  before  the  world,  to  h^  ve  our 
citizens  murdered  and  our  travellers  maltreated  in  the  South- 
ern States,  because  of  our  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  then 
find,  by  irrefutable  facts,  that  we  are  taxed  at  the  high  rate 
of  $40  per  head,  every  year,  to  support  the  vile  Institution 
which  is  the  solitary  cause  of  all  our  woe,  and  the  only  stain 
on  our  national  escutcheon. 

I  regret  that  the  able  writer  of  these  articles  should  not 
have  confined  himself  to  his  subject  more  exclusively;  but 
have  interspersed  with  his  argument  the  miserable  and  ex- 
ploded sophistries  of  the  protectionists ;  and  have  even  conde- 
scended to  try  to  arouse  the  prejudices  of  nationality  against  a 
politico-economical  truth  and  policy.  It  is  another  illustration 
of  the  saying,  that  most  men  are  monomaniacs  on  some  one 
subject,  This  writer  sees  the  superiority  of  Free  Labor  over 
Slave  Labor ;  but  he  would  strike  the  fetters  from  the  laborer 
only  to  put  them  upon  trade.  The  Southerners  ride  the  other 
hobby.  They  clearly  see  the  advantages  of  Free  Trade,  but 
are  incapable  of  appreciating  the  advantages  of  Free  Labor. 
Yet  these  two  are  but  branches  of  one  root.  "We  do  not 
yyant  to  destroy  the  Slave  Power  to  raise  up  a  Mill  l*ower ;  to 
fiverthrpw  the  cottourraising  Aristpprac^  qf  thp  Sputh  to  estab- 


Appendix. 


459 


lish  a  cotton-manufacturing  Oligarchy  in  the  North.  What 
an  intelligent  nation  wants  from  Government  is,  to  be  let  alone, 
and  permitted  to  buy  where  it  can  buy  cheapest,  and  sell 
where  it  can  sell  to  the  most  advantage.  There  is  no  one 
trutli  better  established  or  more  easily  demonstrated  than  this : 
that  tariffs  protect  Capital  instead  of  Labor,  and  build  up 
towns  and  villages  and  their  immediate  neighborhoods  at  the 
expense  of  the  rural  districts  of  the  whole  country  and  the 
shipping  interest. 

With  these  few  comments,  I  submit  the  Tribune^  articles 
without  further  preface,  save  this  one  additional  remark  only  — 
that  the  argument  in  favor  of  a  Free  Northern  Republic 
is  much  stronger  to-day  than  when  these  essays  first  appeared, 
five  years  ago.  J.  R. 

SLAVERY  AND  THE  UNION. 

It  seems  to  be  time,  in  view  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the  country 
is  now  placed,  and  of  the  great  controversy  respecting  Slavery  revived  by 
Pierce  and  Douglas  and  their  Southern  allies  in  the  extinct  Whig  party 
of  the  South,  the  Badgers,  the  Joneses,  and  the  Claytons,  —  a  controversy 
whose  conclusion  no  man  can  foresee,  —  it  is  time,  we  say,  to  examine  the 
point  of  which  the  South  makes  the  greatest  account,  which  it  constantly 
employs  by  way  of  both  defence  and  offence,  and  without  which,  indeed,  it 
would  often  be  difficult  for  Southern  champions  to  have  any  thing  to  say  at 
all.  This  point  is  succinctly  expressed  in  the  following  extract  from  The 
Union,  Past  and  Future,  a  pamphlet  published  at  Charleston,  in  1850, 
widely  circulated  at  the  time,  and  since  republished,  in  whole  or  in  part, 
in  various  other  places  throughout  the  Southern  States : 

"  Tlie  North  possesses  none  of  the  material  elements  of  greatness,  in  wliich  the 
South  abounds,  wlietlier  we  regard  the  productions  of  the  soil,  the  access  to  the 
markets  of  the  world,  or  the  capacity  of  military  defence.  While  the  Slave  States 
produce  nearly  every  thing  within  themselves,  the  Free  States  will  soon  depend  on 
them  even  for  food,  as  they  now  do  for  rice,  sugar,  tobacco,  and  cotton,  —  the  employ- 
ment of  their  ships  in  Southern  commerce,  the  employment  of  their  labor  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  Southern  cotton,  and  all  that  they  can  purchase  of  other  countries  with 
the  fabrics  of  that  great  Southern  staple.  We  have  shown  that  the  price  of  that 
staple  nuist  be  permanently  raised ;  how  would  the  manufacturing  industry  of  the 
Free  States  stand  this  rise,  if  their  taxes  Were  raised  by  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and 
how  icould  their  laborers  subsist  under  this  new  burden,  {f  they  at  once  lost  the  empUiy- 
ment  affu*Jed  by  the  free  use  of  one  hundred  and  forty  millions  of  Southern  capital  and 
the  disbursement  of  twenty  millions  of  Snutliern  taxes  1  The  answer  to  this  question 
will  bring  us  to  the  last  view  we  shall  present  of  our  subject,  and  will  show  that 
tlie  Union  has,  in  truth,  inestimable  worth  for  the  JVorth,  It  denes  all  the  powers  of 
fi  cures  to  calculate  tlie  value  to  the  Free  States  of  the  conservative  influence  of  the 
South  upon  their  social  organization."  —  The  Union,  Past  and  Future :  How  it  Works 
and  How  to  Save  It. 

Few  ideas  are  more  widely  disseminated  or  more  deeply  seated  among 


460 


Appendix., 


our  Southern  friends  than  that  which  is  here  inculcated  —  the  oppression 
of  the  Slaveholding  States  for  the  benefit  of  the  free  ones.  Few  errors  are 
of  more  universal  acceptation  than  is  the  belief  throughout  all  the  country 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  that  the  prosperity  of  the  North  is  due  to 
its  connection  with  the  South,  and  that  a  continuance  of  that  connection 
is  to  the  former  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity  if  it  would  avoid  returning 
to  the  "  original  poverty  and  weakness  "  that  must  inevitably  result  from 
a  dissolution  of  the  Union.  To  Northern  men,  such  an  event,  as  we  are 
told,  would  be  fatal,  because  it  would  be  followed  by  an  increase  of  taxa- 
tion, a  diminished  demand  for  labor,  and  diminished  power  to  command 
the  capital  of  the  South,  accompanied  by  increased  difficulty  in  finding 
freight  for  their  ships,  or  raw  materials  for  consumption  in  their  factories 
and  mills.  To  them,  therefore,  the  Union  is,  according  to  universal  South- 
em  authority,  "  of  inestimable  worth ;  "  whereas  a  dissolution  of  the  Union 
would,  to  the  South,  be  fraught  with  blessings.  Once  separated  from  the 
North  says  our  pamphlet, 

"  Her  trade  would  revive  and  grow,  like  a  field  of  young  com,  when  the  long- 
expected  showers  descend  after  a  willioring  drought.  The  South  now  loses  the  use 
of  some  130  or  140  millions  a  year  of  her  capital,  and  also  pays  to  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment at  least  26  millions  of  taxes,  S3  of  which  are  spent  beyond  her  borders. 
Tiiis  great  stream  of  taxation  continually  bears  the  wealth  of  the  South  far  away 
on  its  waves,  and  small  indeed  is  the  portion  whichever  returns  in  refreshing  clouds 
to  replenish  its  sources.  Turn  it  back  to  its  nntural  channel,  and  the  South  will  be 
relieved  of  fifteen  millions  of  taxes  —  to  be  left  where  they  can  be  most  wisely  ex- 
pended, in  the  hands  of  the  payers  ;  and  the  other  eleven  millions  will  furnish  sala- 
ries to  licr  people  and  encouragement  to  her  labor.  Restore  to  her  the  use  of  the  130 
or  140  millions  a  year  of  her  produce  for  the  foreign  trade,  and  all  her  ports  will 
throng  with  business.  Norfolk,  and  Charleston,  and  Savannah,  so  long  pointed  at 
by  the  North  as  a  proof  of  the  pretended  evils  of  Slavery,  will  be  crowded  with  ship- 
ping, and  their  warehouses  crammed  with  merchandise.  Tlie  use  and  command  of 
this  largo  capital  would  cut  canals ;  it  would  build  roads  and  tunnel  mountains, 
and  drive  the  iron  horse  through  the  remotest  valleys,  till '  the  desert  should  blossom 
like  the  rose.'  " 

Four  years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  publication  of  this  pamphlet,  and 
with  each  and  every  day  of  those  years,  these  ideas  have  obtained  stronger 
hold  on  the  Southern  mind,  until  at  length  we  find  them  now  repeated  from 
every  quarter  of  the  Slaveholding  States.  In  all,  the  continuance  of  the 
Union  is  now  regarded  as  the  one  great  necessity  of  the  North  —  as  the  con- 
dition of  its  existence  as  a  thriving  and  prosperous  community.  All  that 
Northern  people  desire,  as  we  are  told  by  the  Charleston  Mercuri/,  is 
"  power  and  gain,"  and  to  secure  these  they  must  cling  to  the  Union  as  the 
sheet-anchor  of  all  their  hopes.  With  the  South,  on  the  contrary,  the  great 
necessity  is  dissolution,  and  if  the  Union  is  to  be  maintained  it  can  be  so 
only  on  condition  that  Southern  men  shall  be  the  masters  of  its  policy,  both 
external  and  internal.  The  North  may  wince,  but  it  7hmt  submit.  Even 
now,  on  account  of  the  Nebraska  Bill, 

»«  They  threaten  us,"  says  the  Mefcimj,  "  with  a  great  Northern  party,  and  a  gen- 
eral war  upon  the  South.  If  they  were  not  mere  hucksters  in  politics  —  with  only 
this  peculiarity,  that  every  man  offers  himself,  insteiid  of  some  other  commodity  for 
Halo  —  we  should  surmise  that  they  might  do  what  they  threaten,  and  thus  bring  out 
Vie  real  triumph  of  the  South,  by  making'  a  dissoltttion  of  the  Union  necessary. 

"  llut  they  will  do  no  such  thing.  They  will  bluster  .;nd  utter  a  world  of  swelling 
self-glorification,  and  end  by  knocking  themselves  down  to  the  highest  bidder.  To 
be  sure,  if  they  could  make  the  best  bargain  by  destroying  the  South,  they  would  set 
»buut  it  without  delay.   But  tUey  cannot.    They  live  upon  us,  and  the  South  affords 


Appendix. 


461 


them  tlie  double /rratif cation  of  an  olijrct  for  Jiatrcd,  and  a  feld  for  plunder.  How  far 
they  may  do  moveil  to  carry  their  iiidigiiatinii  at  this  tune,  it  is  iiiijiussihle  tu  say  ; 
but  we  may  be  sure  tliey  will  cool  oft'just  at  the  point  wliere  they  discover  that  they 
can  make  nothing  more  out  of  it,  and  may  lose." 

"  The  real  triumph  of  the  South  "  would,  as  we  are  here  told,  be  found 

in  the  adoption  by  the  North  of  such  a  course  of  policy  as  would  make  "  a 

dissolution  of  the  Union  necessary."   Therefore,  the  South  may  demand 

•what  it  pleases,  and  the  North  must  yield  all  that  is  demanded,  on  penalty 

of  separation.   "  It  is  sufficient  reason,"  says  the  Coliunbia  Times,  "  for 

demanding  the  passage  of  the  Nebraska  Bill,  that  it  excites  the  hostilitj'  of 

abolitionists  and  free  soilers."  That  it  does  so  is  regarded  as  evidence  that 

the  measure  "  is  right  and  proper,  and  therefore  to  be  supported."  Let  the 

North  fume  and  fret,  it  dare  not  dissolve  that  Union  to  which  it  is  indebted 

for  all  its  "  power  and  gain."   "We  make  another  quota.tion  from  the 

Charleston  pamphlet,  as  follows : 

"  The  fall  of  wages,"  as  v/e  are  assured,  "  would  be  heavy  and  instantaneous 
were  tlie  Union  dissolved,  for  that  event  would,  as  we  Iiave  shown,  not  only  throw 
twenty  millions  of  dollars  of  new  taxes  upon  tlie  Norrh,  but  would  withdraw  140 
millions  of  capital  wiiich  now  employs  her  labor.  This  loss  would  fall  chicily,  if  not 
entirely,  upon  wages.  The  Nortliern  capitalist  would  not  submit  to  a  I'ecrease  of 
profit,  but  would  send  a  part  of  his  capital  to  the  South,  where  profits  wtro  liigiier, 
until  ho  had  reduced  wages  at  home  to  a  point  whicli  would  leave  him  nearly  as 
much  clear  gain  on  his  industry  as  before.  He  would  in  this  way  escape  the  wliole 
burden  of  the  new  taxes,  and  throw  it  upon  labor." 

Northern  politicians  repeat  this  doctrine,  assuring  their  fellow-citizens 
that  safety  and  prosperity  are  indissolubly  connected  with  the  maintenance 
of  the  Union.  That  it  may  be  maintained.  Slavery  must  be  tolerated  in  all 
the  territory  open  to  settlement  and  organization.  If  this  be  not  done,  the 
South,  as  we  are  assured,  will  secede.  Some  of  these  politicians,  "for  the 
sake  of  candor,"  admit  that,  but  a  few  years  sinne,  they  did  desire  to  pre- 
serve a  portion  of  the  common  territory  exempt  from  Slavery ;  but,  as 
they  assure  their  Southern  friends,  they  are  now  most  penitent,  and  gladly 
admit  the  error  of  their  former  course.  "  Thank  God,  we  failed  !  "  was  the 
pious  exclamation  of  one  of  these  gentlemen  recently  before  the  Senate, 
waiting  confirmation  in  the  honorable  office  of  Charge  d' Affaires  to  Portu- 
gal. Anxious  to  mm  his  office,  he  gladly  proclaimed  his  penitence.  H:id 
ice  succeeded,  as  he  told  his  countrymen,  the  South  would  have*scee(U'd 
from  the  Union.  Such  was  the  cry  in  1S20  \  such  was  it  m  1830  ^  such  was 
it  in  1850.  Such  it  now  is,  and  such  it  will  be  when  the  South  shall  demand 
the  repeal  of  all  the  laws  which  prevent  the  introduction  of  slaves,  as  siit  h, 
into  the  Free  States,  and  those  other  laws  by  which  the  African  slave  trade 
is  prohibited,  and  all  concerned  in  it  are  declared  pirates.  The  proverb 
tells  us  that,  "  Little  by  little  the  bird  builds  its  nest."  Those  who  will 
study  the  course  of  proceeding,  from  the  days  of  Jefferson  and  Madison  to 
the  present  time,  will  scarcely  fail  to  see  that  the  nest  has  been  built  "  lit- 
tle by  little  "  until  it  has  arrived  almost  at  the  point  of  completion  —  that 
it  now  needs  little  more  than  to  be  finished  by  the  passage  of  a  brief  law 
declaring  that  slaves  may  be  purchased  any  where  and  carried  evenj  where 
—  and  that, to  this  complexion  we  must  come  at  last,"  if,  as  Southern 
and  Northern  politicians  now  unite  to  assure  us,  a  continu.ance  of  the 
Union  is  to  the  people  of  the  North  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity. 


462 


Appendix. 


More  than  thirty  years  since,  Southern  men  commenced  their  threats  of 

dissolution.   More  than  thirty  years  Northern  men  have  been  engaged  in 

"saving  the  Union,"  and  to  accomplish  that  objec .  they  have  not  only 

yielded  all  thai  has  been  claimed,  but  have  orouche  i  before  the  men  that 

spurned  them.   Throughout  all  that  period  they  ha  ve,  to  use  the  words  of 

the  Charleston  Courier,  exhibited  the  "base  cupidity  and  servile  truckling 

and  subserviency  to  the  South,"  which,  as  that  jour  lal  informs  its  readers, 

prevail  "  almost  universally  "  throughout  the  Northern  States,  and  with 

what  result  ?   For  an  answer  to  this  question  we  refer  our  readers  to  the 

followng  comments  upon  the  Rev.  Mr.  Parker's  recent  discourse,  which, 

as  the  Courier  assures  its  Southern  readers, 

"  Truthfully,  ns  well  as  strongly,  detail  and  depict  the  various  occasions  on  which 
Southern  interests  have  obtained  the  mastery  in  Congress, or,  at  least,  iinpuriaiit  ad- 
vantages, which  arc  well  worthy  the  consideration  of  all  who  erroneously  suppo.te  that  the 
action  of  the  general  gonernment  has  been,  on  the  whole,  adoerse  to  Slaoery.  The  truth 
is,  that  our  govcrntnent,  althoiign  hostile,  in  its  incipiency,  to  domestic  Slavery,  and 
atarting  into  political  being  with  a  atrong  bent  towards  abolition,  yet  afterwards  so 
cliangod  its  policy  that  its  action,  for  the  nwst  part,  and  with  only  a  few  exceptions, 
has  fostered  the  slaveholding  interest,  and  swelled  it  from  six  to  fifteen  States,  and 
from  a  feeble  and  sparse  population  to  one  often  millions." 

Harsh  as  this  may  sound  to  Northern  ears,  it  is  yet  most  true,  and  it 

afibrds  to  its  Southern  author  full  warrant  for  complimenting  "the sons  of 

the  South"  upon  their  unwavering  "fidelity  to  their  own  interests,"  real, 

or  supposed.    What,  however,  shall  we  say  of  the  sons  of  the  North,  —  the 

"hucksters  in  politics,"  always  ready,  as  the  Mercury  assures  us,  to 

"  knock  themselves  down  to  the  highest  bidder  "  for  Northern  men  with 

Southern  principles  ?   Can  we  say  of  them  other  than  that  their  cause  has 

generally  been  marked  by  "  cupidity,  truckling,  and  subserviency  to  the 

South,"  by  aid  of  which  the  latter  has  acquired  a  degree  of  control  over  the 

operations  of  the  Union  never  contemplated  by  the  men  who  framed  the 

Constitution  ? 

Sixty-five  years  since,  at  the  date  of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution, 
there  existed  throughout  the  Union  scarcely  any  difference  of  opinion  on 
the  question  of  Slavery.  Washington  and  Adams,  Jefferson  and  Franklin, 
Hamilton  and  Madison,  Jay,  Randolph,  and  Pinckney,  all  equally  regard- 
ed it  as  a  blight  and  a  curse,  to  be  exterminated  at  as  early  a  period  as 
was  consistent  with  proper  regard  for  the  interests  of  those  by  whom  the 
slaves  were  held.  The  policy  of  the  government  then  inaugurated  tended, 
as  the  Courier  informs  its  readers,  "towards  abolition."  Twenty  years 
later,  the  same  opinions  were  still  held  by  Southern  men,  as  was  showij  by 
the  debates  in  Congress  on  the  subject  of  Slavery  in  the  territory  of  Indi- 
ana. The  war  of  1812,  directed  by  Madison  and  Monroe,  was  emphatically 
a  war  of  the  Southern  and  Middle  States,  having  for  one  of  its  objects  an 
enlargement  of  the  free  territory  of  the  Union.  Virginia  did  not  then 
object  to  the  annexation  of  Canada,  but  at  that  time  none  had  yet  under- 
taken to  prove  Slavery  among  the  people  to  be  required  for  the  establish- 
ment of  perfect  freedom  among  their  masters.  None  had  then  undertaken 
to  show  that  "  the  love  of  true  liberty  and  manly  independence  of  thought " 
could  exist  in  no  community  except  those  in  which  men,  their  wives,  and 
their  children  were  bought  and  sold  like  cattle  in  the  market.   The  discoy- 


Appendix. 


ery  of  this  great  political  truth  was  reserved  for  the  generation  that  has 
succeeded  the  one  which  gave  to  the  world  such  men  as  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson, and  Madison. 

That,  in  the  outset,  the  tendencies  of  the  nation  were  "towards  ahoU- 
tion,"  is  most  true.  Equally  true  is  it  that  for  the  last  thirty  years  they 
have  been  in  the  opposite  direction,  and,  in  so  asserting,  the  Courier  is  sus- 
tained by  facts.  With  difficulty  the  territory  north  and  west  of  Missouri 
was  secured  to  the  Free  States  as  their  share  of  the  Louisiana  purchase. 
Since  then,  Florida  has  been  purchased  by  the  Union  Jbr  the  South,  and 
Texas  has  been  purchased  by  the  Union  for  the  South.  At  the  cost  of  an 
expensive  war,  made  by  the  S^otUh,  and  for  Southern  objects,  a  portion  of 
the  Mexican  territory  has  been  added  to  the  Union,  and  nothing  but 
•  squatter  sovereignty  "  secured  any  part  of  it  to  the  occupation  of  North- 
em  men.  Cuba  is  now  to  be  purchased,  at  the  cost  of  a  hundred  millions, 
for  the  Sottth.  The  Gadsden  treaty,  at  a  cost  of  twenty  millions,  secures 
more  territory _/br  the  South. 

What,  in  all  this  time,  has  been  purchased  for  the  North  ?  Nothing ! 
Not  even  a  foot  of  land !  When  we  had  a  dispute  with  England  about  the 
boundaries  of  Maine,  that  State  was  left  to  compromise  us  best  she  could. 
When  the  boundaries  of  Texas  were  to  be  settled,  an  army  was  sent  to  the 
State,  and,  when  the  collision  had  been  thus  produced,  war  was  declared 
"to  exist;"  and  that  war  was  prosecuCed  until  we  had  spent  almost  a 
hundred  mUlions,  and  had  added  a  vast  amount  of  territory  on  the  south- 
western side  of  the  Union.  At  the  North  all  is  different.  Canada,  and 
the  other  British  possessions,  with  their  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people, 
would  not  be  admitted  into  the  Union  were  they  to  offer  themselves  free 
of  cost ;  nor  dare  any  Northern  politician  even  hint  at  the  idea,  because  it 
would  ruin  him  with  the  South.  The  area  of  Slavery  must  be  enlarged  at 
any  cost,  but  that  of  Freedom  must  not,  even  when  it  can  be  done  with 
profit  to  ourselves.  Worse,  however,  than  this,  the  North  dares  not  even 
recognize  the  existence  of  Freedom  in  any  community  the  members  of 
which  are  suspected  of  having  African  blood  in  their  veins.  We  can  have 
no  commercial  treaty  with  the  people  of  Hayti,  because  they  are  black, 
and  are  not  liable  to  be  seized  and  sold.  We  dare  not  recognize  the  Re- 
public of  Liberia,  lest  it  might  offend  the  South.  Look  where  we  may, 
the  South  dictates  the  policy  of  the  whole  Union,  the  action  of  whose 
government  has,  as  the  Courier  correctly  assures  its  readers,  "  fostered 
the  Slaveholding  interests,  and  swelled  it  from  six  to  fifteen  States,"  and 
now  proposes  to  swell  it  still  further,  by  repealing  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise and  purchasing  Cuba. 

Has  this  policy  tended  to  cement  the  bonds  of  union  ?  It  would  seem 
not ;  for,  while  the  great  mess  of  the  American  people,  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line,  have  remained  fast  and  firm  in  the  faith  of  Washington,  Jef- 
ferson, and  Madison,  and  have  carried  their  ideas  into  practical  effect  by 
abolishing  Slavery,  those  south  of  the  line  have  been  gradually  taking  up 
a  new  faith,  which  teaches  that  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  of  divine 
origin,  and  is  to  be  maintained  now  and  forevermore.   "Divine  Provi- 


464 


Appendix. 


dence,  for  its  own  high  and  inscrutable  purposes,"  has,  as  we  are  told  by 
the  Charleston  pamphleteer, 

"  Provided  the  whites  of  the  Anglo-Norman  race  in  the  Southern  States  with  the 
necessary  means  of  unexampled  prosperity,  wi!h  that  slave  labor,  without  which, 
as  a  general  rule,  no  colonization  in  a  new  country  ever  has  or  ever  will  thrive  and 
grow  rapidly ;  it  has  given  them  a  distinct  and  inferior  race  to  fill  a  position  equal 
to  their  highest  capacity,  which,  in  less  fortunate  countries,  is  occupied  by  the 
whites  themselves." 

To  preserve  this  state  of  things,  and  maintain  the  existing  "  domestic 
institutions  "  of  the  South,  is,  as  the  same  witer  informs  us,  one  of  the 
chief  duties  of  government,  and  a  system  based  upon  such  institutions 
"becomes  instinct  with  life  and  healthy  vigor."  "Public  opinion,"  then, 
as  he  says,  "  works  in  its  true  calling,  as  the  moderator,  not  the  silencer 
of  individual  differences ; "  and  a  community  thus  established  presents,  as 
Mr.  Calhoun  was  accustomed  to  assure  his  friends,  the  most  perfect  form  of 
society  the  world  has  ever  yet  seen.  It  is  under  such  circumstances  that 
we  are  to  find  the  highest  organization,  and  for  this,  as  we  are  told  by  our 
pamphleteer, 

"  The  Southern  States  have  peculiar,  and  well  nigh  indispensable  advantages  in 
.heir  slave  institutions,  which  forever  obliterate  the  division  between  labor  and 
capital." 

We  see  thus  that  the  North  and  the  South  are  steadily  moving  in  opposite 
directions ;  the  one  becoming  more  averse  to  Slavery,  and  the  other  more 
enamoured  of  it.  Differences  in  the  modes  of  thought  increase  from  day  to 
day.  Southern  men  now  requin;  Southern  school  books  for  their  children, 
and  Southern  teachers  for  themselves.  The  ties  that  once  united  the  different 
sections  of  the  great  Methodist  Association  have  been  broken,  and  already, 
in  other  churches,  there  are  differences  that  must  e\-entuany  lead  to  separa- 
tion. Southern  planters  seek  to  have  Southern  conventions,  and  decline 
to  attend  those  to  which  are  invited  the  agriculturists  of  the  Union. 
Southern  commercial  conventions  are  held  with  a  view  to  measures  for 
avoiding  Northern  cities.  Southern  political  conventions  precede  the  dis- 
solution of  the  ties  which  formerly  connected  Southern  and  Northern 
Whigs,  and  Southern  and  Northern  Democrats.  From  year  to  year  the  ten- 
dency, in  and  out  of  Congress,  is  towards  sectionalism ;  and  such  being  the 
case,  there  would  seem  now  to  be  some  propriety  in  examining  ho\r  far  tl"- 
Northern  States  depend  upon  the  South  for  their  prosperity  and  their  ex- 
istence, and  how  far  the  menace  of  disunion,  supposing  it  is  earnestly 
meant  and  may  really  be  carried  out,  ought  to  be  regarded  by  them  with 
anxiety  or  alarm.  That  question  we  shall  take  an  early  occasion  to  con- 
sider. 

RELATIVE  PO^VER  OF  THE  NORTH  AND  THE  SOUTH. 

North  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  of  the  Ohio,  and  of  the  Missouri  line, 
there  are  fifteen  States,  in  all  of  which  Slavery  is  prohibited.  South  of 
Maryland  and  Missouri  there  are  twelve  States  in  which  Slavery  is  regarded 
as  a  blessing.  Between  these  two  great  blocks  of  States  lie  three  whoso 
position  it  is  required  here  to  examine,  to  wit : 


Appendix. 


465 


Free  population.        Slave.  Totals 


Delaware   87,719  2,688  90,407 

Maryland   485,948  89,'2(M  575,150 

Misaouti   605,140  87,767  692,907 


Total  1,178,805  179,659  1,358,464 


Slavery  exists  in  all  of  these,  but  the  proportion  of  Slaves  to  free  is,  as 
our  readers  see,  but  little  more  than  one  to  seven.  The  tendencies  of  the 
majority  must,  therefore,  be  in  the  direction  of  a  Northern  Union,  and 
their  interests  carry  them  necessarily  towards  the  North.  Maryland  is 
fast  becoming  a  mining  and  manufacturing  State,  and  the  policy  of  the 
North  favors  diversification  of  employment,  and  thus  furnishes  a  market 
for  coal  and  iron  that  cannot  be  obtained  in  the  South.  Baltimore  has  a 
large  trade  with  the  West,  and  the  largest  portion  of  it,  that  which  she 
has  made  the  greatest  efforts  to  secure,  lies  north  of  the  Ohio ;  and  it  is 
in  that  quarter  augmentation  is  most  rapid.  Her  Slaves  are  few  in  num- 
ber, and,  in  the  event  of  separation,  she  would  have  the  guarantee  of  the 
North  for  their  possession  during  the  period  of  preparation  for  gradual 
and  quiet  emancipation ;  whereas,  were  she  in  a  Southern  Union,  but 
few  would  remain  at  the  close  of  a  single  year  from  the  date  of  separation 
from  Pennsylvania.  Her  union  with  the  North  is  one,  therefore,  not  to  be 
dissolved ;  and  Delaware,  of  course,  accompanies  her,  and  becomes  a  part 
of  the  Northern  Union.  So,  too,  with  Missouri.  Her  interests  look  east- 
ward, and  not  southward.  Railroads  are  rapidly  uniting  her  with  the 
cities  of  the  Atlantic  coast.  Her  farmers  and  miners  look  eastward  for  a 
market  for  their  products.  Her  chief  city  looks  westward  and  northward, 
and  not  southward,  for  its  trade.  Her  Slaves  are  few  in  number,  and  can- 
not be  retained  if  Iowa  and  Illinois  constitute  a  portion  of  another  Union. 
It  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  absolutely  certain  that,  in  the  event  of  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  these  three  States  will  remain  connected  with  the 
North.  What  would  be  (Sie  course  of  Kentucky  and  Western  Virginia  it 
is  somewhat,  though  we  think  not  very  much,  more  difficult  to  determine. 
Both  would  have  very  strong  reasons  for  pursuing  the  same  course  with 
Maryland  and  Missouri ;  but  for  the  present  we  vnl\  assume  that  they  will 
go  with  the  South,  and  that  the  following  is  the  proper  classification  of  the 
States ;  — 

In  the  North  are — New  England,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa, 
California,  and  Minnesota,  now  soon  to  become  a  State.  In  the  South- 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  Georgia,  Florida,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ala- 
bama, Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas. 

States,    Free  population.      Slaoe.  Total. 

North   20         14,800,000  178,000  14,978,000 

South   12  5,200,000       3,000,000  8,200,000 

Such  were  the  proportions  at  the  date  of  the  census  now  nearly  four 
years  old ;  but  since  then  they  have  been  materially  changed.  The  vast 
immigration  of  the  last  four  years,  coupled  with  the  natural  increase, 
must  have  swelled  th&  population  of  the  Northern  set  of  States  to  little 


466 


Appendix. 


less  than  seventeen  and  a  half  millions  ;  ivhile  the  natural  increase,  and  a 
small  immigration,  have  probably  carried  the  number  in  the  Southern, 
one  to  nine  millions.  The  total  population  of  the  Union  in  1340  was 
scarcely  greater  than  is  that  of  the  States  which,  in  a  sectional  division, 
must  constitute  the  North. 

It  is  charged  that  the  North  lives  upon  the  South,  that  its  prosperity 
result-;  from  the  vast  trade  furnished  by  the  South,  and  that  it  could  not 
prosper  if  separated  from  the  South ;  and  these  are  the  charges  it  is  pro- 
posed now  to  examine.  If  they  are  well  founded,  and  if  the  North  owes 
to  its  Southern  connection  all  its  "  power  and  gain,"  it  may  be  well  to  sub- 
mit to  all  the  demands  of  the  South  "rather  than  return  to  their  natural 
poverty  and  weakness  by  dissolving  the  Union  ;  "  but,  before  doing  this, 
it  would  be  well  to  be  assured  that  the  facts  ai^e  really  so.  AVe  believe 
they  are  not,  and  are  disposed  to  think  that  our  readers  will,  at  the  close 
of  the  examination,  agree  viiih  us  in  this  belief. 

The  "gain"  from  a  customer  is  dependent  altogether  on  his  power  to 
purchase;  and  this  is,  in  its  turn,  dependent  on  his  power  to  sell.  The 
man  who  sells  his  day's  labor  for  a  dollar  cannot  be  a  customer  to  the 
storekeeper  to  a  greater  extent  than  a  dollar  per  day.  The  farmer  who  has 
only  100  bushels  of  wheat  to  sell  cannot  purchase  more  than  the  value  of 
those  bushels.  The  planter  who  has  but  twenty  bales  of  cotton  to  sell 
cannot  purchase  more  goods  than  'they  will  pay  for.  So  is  it  with  com- 
munities. Their  power  to  purchase  is  limited  by  their  power  to  sell. 
Such  being  the  case,  it  would  seem  to  be  obvious  that  trade  among  the 
people  of  the  North  must  be  of  vastly  greater  extent  than  among  those  of 
the  South.  In  the  latter,  labor  is  not  held  in  honor  among  white  men, 
and  slaves,  as  is  well  known,  do  but  little  work.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, we  might,  we  think,  fairly  assume  that  the  efficiency  of  Southern 
labor  was  not  more  than  half  as  much  per  head  as  that  of  Northern  labor ; 
and,  if  so,  as  the  population  of  the  Northern  section  is  almost  double  that 
of  the  Southern  one,  it  would  follow  that  the  productive  power  of  the 
North  was  four  times  greater  than  that  of  the  South ;  and  that  it  is  not 
only  60,  but  that  the  difference  is  even  greater  thjin  this,  can,  as  we  think, 
readily  be  established.  Commencing  with  the  agricultural  productions, 
we  offer  our  readers  the  following  facts  derived  from  the  census,  begging 
them,  once  for  all,  to  remark  that,  in  the  statements  we  shall  funiish,  the 
division  between  the  North  and  South  will  be  made  in  conformity  with  that 
of  States  and  population  given  above : 


JVorthem  States. 

Southern  States, 

.  bnshels  80,000,000 

20,000,000 

it 

17,000/)00 

1,000,000 

(( 

105,000,000 

45,000,000 

9,000,000 

<c 

2M,000,00C 

298,00o',o6o 

Potatoes  (white  and  sweet) 

" 

62,000,000 

12,000,009 

100,000 

i< 

500,000 

i( 

I3,o6o',ooo 

1,0(10,000 

It 

182,000 

27,000 

Appendix. 


467 


JVorUtem  States.      Southern  States. 

Hemp  tons  16,500  18,500 

Wool  pounds  42,000,000  10,000,000 

Flax                                                "  4,000,000  4,000,000 

Tobacco                                         "  53,000,000  146,000,000 

Hops                                             "  4,000,000 

Beeswax  and  honey                         ««  14,000,000  700,000 

Maple  sugar                                  "  32,000,000  _  2,000.000 

Cane     "                                      "  .    .  247,000,000 

Molasses  gallons  1,000,000  12,000,000 

Orchard  and  garden  products   $12,000,000  $3,000,000 

Animals  slaughtered   $62,000,000  $47,00e;,0CC 

An  examination  of  the  above  can  scarcely  fail  to  satisfy  our  readers  that 
it  is  exceedingly  inaccurate  and  unfavorable  to  the  North.  The  export  of 
animal  food  from  the  region  north  and  west  of  the  Ohio  is  twice,  if  not 
thrice  greater  than  that  from  the  region  south  and  east  of  it ;  while  the 
quantity  consumed  in  the  North  must  be  six  times  greater.  Such  is  the 
case,  too,  with  orchard  and  garden  produce.  A  single  cent  per  day,  per 
head,  expended  by  the  people  of  New  York,  Brooklyn,  and  Philadelphia, 
would  amount  to  over  four  millions  of  dollars,  or  one-third  of  the  whole 
amount  here  set  down  for  a  population  of  fifteen  millions  of  people.  The 
cause  of  error  at  the  North  is,  as  we  think,  readily  seen.  Where  there  are 
thousands  of  small  proprietors,  from  each  of  whom  a  statement  is  to  be 
obtained,  the  difficulty  is  far  greater  than  when  a  single  person  represents 
a  family  of  one,  two,  or  three  h\ii'dred  hands,  all  of  whose  products  go  into 
one  common  treasury.  Admitting,  however,  the  returns  to  be  correct,  we 
will  now  furnish  a  comparative  view  of  the  products  of  the  two  different 
sections  of  the  TJnion. 

The  Northern  excess  of  hay  is  12  millions  of  tons,  and  the  Southern 
product  of  cotton  and  rice  is  600,000  tons,  or  one-twentieth  as  much  in 
quantity.  The  average  value  of  the  latter  commodities  being  less  than 
twenty  times  the  average  of  the  former,  it  follows  that  the  hay  more  than 
counterbalances  the  cotton  and  the  rice.  Hemp,  flax  and  corn,  as  the 
reader  sees,  balance  each  other.  Leaving  these,  then,  out  of  view,  wo 
have  the  following  excesses : 

JVortft.  South. 

Wheat    ....   60,000,000  bush.  Tobacco    .   .  .     93,000,000  lbs. 

Kyo  and  barley       16,000,000    "  Sugar   ....  217,000,000  " 

Oats   60,000,000     "  Molasses    .   .   .     11,000,000  gal. 

Buckwheat     .   .     9,000,000  «'   

Potatoes     .  .   .  50,000,000    "  Value,  .   .  .  $22,000,000. 

Butter  and  cheese       155,000  tons. 

Wool   32,000,000  lbs. 

Beeswax  and  hay   13,000,000  " 

Orchard  and  gar- 
den products  .  $10,000,000 

Animals  slaught- 
ered   ....  $15,000,000 

Value,   .   .  $195,000,000 

The  total  value  of  the  principal  products  of  Southern  agriculture,  for  that 
year,  is  thus  given  in  De  Bow's  Review,  3d  series,  volume  ii.  p.  141 : 


468 


Appendix. 


Erported.       Home  Consumption.    Total  Products. 


Cotton   S71,SS4,C16  $33,615,384  $10:>,6nf),000 

Tobacco    9,95J,923  5,0-18,777  15,0n!).l)00 

Rice   2,631,8.S7  400,000  3.031,887 

Naval  Stores   1,142,713  800,000  I,!i43,713 

Sugar    23,037  12,390,150  12,419,187 

Hemp   5,033  690,207  695,840 


Total,  $85,739,109  $52,950,518  $138,089,627 


The  average  value  of  Indian  corn  for  that  year  is  given  at  45  cents  ;  but 
the  distance  from  market  and  the  difficulty  of  communication  throughout 
the  South,  reduce  it  below  the  average.  If  we  take  it  thirty-three  cents 
per  bushel,  we  shall  probably  be  in  excess  of  the  truth,  and  this  would  give, 


For  the  whole  Southern  crop  $93,0.00,000 

Add  to  this  for  the  animals  slaushtered,  47,000,000 

For  the  other  products  of  agriculture,   50,000,000 


And  we  otitain  the  total  value  of  agricultural  products,  $333,089,027 

If  we  now  add  to  tliis,  for  inanufacturea,  and  for  the  product  of  labor 
in  all  other  pursuits,  one  h->If  of  this  amount,  say   160,310,373 


We  obtain  as  the  total  Southern  product,  exclusive  of  the  Negroes  

raised,  which  constitute  so  important  an  item  of  Soutliern  produce, .  $500,000,000 

This,  we  think,  is  rather  in  excess  of  the  truth,  but  if  true,  it  would  give 
an  average  product  of  about  sixty  dollars  per  head. 

In  comparing  with  this  the  Northern  proi.'uct,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  Northern  farmer  is,  in  most  ca«es,  much  nearer  market,  and  al- 
ways provided  with  much  better  means  or  intercourse.  The  corn  that  is 
worth,  in  Texas,  fifteen  cents,  becomes  worth  sixty  cents  by  the  time  it 
reaches  Massachusetts,  and  the  farmer  of  the  latter  obtains  as  much  for 
one  bushel  as  the  farmer  of  the  former  obtains  for  four  ;  and  this  is  true, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  with  reference  to  all  the  products  of  agriculture. 
The  prices  of  cotton,  tobacco,  rice,  &c.,  above  given,  are  their  prices  at  the 
ports  from  which  they  are  exported,  and  include  all  charges  up  to  the  time 
of  shipment,  even  to  warehouse  rent  and  broker's  commission  on  the  sale. 

To  make  a  fair  comparison  of  the  agricultural  operations  of  the  two  sec- 
tions, it  would  be  required  to  pursue  a  similar  course  with  the  North, 
taking  the  value  of  their  products  at  the  place  of  sale  ;  and  were  this  done, 
it  would  be  found  that  the  excess  in  that  was  so  far  greater  than  in  quantity 
that  it  would  be  safe  to  estimate  its  agricultural  production  at  much  more 
than  double  the  amount  above  given  for  the  South,  or  at  least  ^00,000,000, 
making  a  total  somewhat  exceeding  $1,200,000,000. 

The  South,  however,  makes  its  exchanges  but  once  in  a  year,  while  at 
the  North,  because  of  the  proximity  of  markets,  exchanges  are  repeated 
from  month  to  month,  throughout  the  year.  The  market-gardener  fur- 
nishes cabbages  and  potatoes,  peas  and  beans,  to  the  man  who  converts 
them  into  coal.  Thence  they  go,  as  coal,  to  another,  who  converts  them 
into  pig-iron ;  thence  to  the  rolling-mill,  whence  they  come  out  as  bars ; 
thence  to  the  shops  from  which  they  come  out  as  axes,  spades,  ploughs,  or 
steam-engines  ;  and  thus  there  is  a  constant  and  unceasing  motion  in  the 
produce  of  the  North,  and  from  this  motion  come  the  "  power  and  gain," 
which,  by  our  Southern  friends,  are  attributed  to  the  Union.  The  raanufac- 


Appendix. 


469 


tures  of  Massachusetts  amount  to  not  less  than  .$150,000,000.  Her  shoe 
manufacture  alone  is  $'37,000,000.  Those  of  the  city  of  New  York,  in  18-50, 
amounted  to  $105,000,000,  and  those  of  Philadelphia  were  fully  equal,  and 
probably  greater.  Those  of  Cincinnati  were  $40,000,000.  Pittsburg  and 
Cincinnati  must  now  considerably  exceed  a  hundred  millions.  At  the 
present  time  they  are  all  very  far  greater  in  amount.  The  iron  trade,  in 
its  various  departments,  from  the  smelting  of  the  ore  to  the  finishing  of 
the  steam-engine,  cannot  be  estimated  at  the  present  time  at  less  thati 
#130,000.000.  nor  the  coal  trade  at  less  than  $20,000,000 ;  the  manufacture 
of  ships  is  more  than  $20,000,000 ;  books,  newspapers,  magazines,  and 
engravings,  amount  to  many  millions.  Add  to  the  infinite  quantity  of 
manufactures  scattered  throughout  New  England,  New  York,  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  other  Northern  States,  the  mining  of  lead  and  copper,  the 
enormous  product  of  lumber,  the  ice  trade,  the  production  of  houses, 
and  the  quantity  of  labor  and  manure  applied  to  the  improvement  of 
land,  while  the  South  is  every  where  exhausting  its  soil ;  and  it  will  readi- 
ly be  seen  how  enormous  is  the  production  of  the  North  as  compared  with 
that  of  the  South.  The  earnings  of  canals,  canal  boats,  and  railroads 
are  $80,000,000  ;  and  if  we  estimate  the  value  of  the  property  carried,  at 
only  ten  times  the  cost  of  transportation,  we  obtain  $800,000,000.  The 
tonnage  of  the  North  is  little  short  of  four  millions,  almost  half  a  million 
of  which  is  moved  by  steam ;  and  if  we  take  the  gross  earnings  of  this  at 
only  one  dollar  per  ton  per  month,  we  have  nearly  fifty  millions,  but  they 
are  probably  considerably  above  a  hundred  millions.  The  net  value  of  the 
property  transported  on  the  lakes  and  rivers,  by  canals,  in  coasters,  and 
on  railroads,  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Andrews,  in  his  Report  on  the  Colonial 
and  Lake  Trade,  (page  905,)  at  $3,120,000,000;  h\it  a  very  small  proportion 
of  which,  as  our  readers  have  seen,  comes  from  che  South. 

We  here  conclude  for  to-day  our  survey  of  these  impressive  and  eloquent 
facts.  We  think  our  readers  will  agree  that  they  show  that  the  North  is 
very  powerful,  and  the  South  comparatively  very  weak,  and  that  if  either 
has  reason  to  dread  the  day  of  dissolution  it  is  that  which  is  oppressed  and 
debilitated  by  the  curse  of  Slavery.  We  shall  next  compare  the  effect  of 
separation  upon  the  commercial  relations  of  the  two  sections. 

THE  COMMERCE  OF  NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

Seven  years  since,  Mr.  Walker  estimated  the  total  product  of  labor  at 
$■3,000,000,000.  Since  then  the  population  has  increased  at  least  twenty- 
five  per  cent.,  and  if  the  product  had  increased  only  in  the  same  rate,  it 
would  now  be  $3,750,000,000.  Estimating  it,  however,  at  only  $3,250,000,000, 
and  that  of  the  South  at  $500,000,000,  we  should  have,  as  the  product  of 
the  North,  $2,750,000,000,  or  about  $180  per  head,  and  this  is  certainly  not 
in  excess  of  the  truth. 

We  ourselves  believe  that  this  view  is  in  a  high  degree  unfavorable  to  the 
North,  and  such,  we  think,  will  be  the  opinion  of  all  our  readers  who  reflect 
to  what  a  wonderful  extent  Northern  labor  is  aided  by  machinery,  and  to 
how  small  an  extent  that  is  the  case  with  the  South.  A  steam-engine  capa- 
40 


470 


Appendix. 


ble  of  doing  the  work  of  tAventy  slaves  can  be  purchased  for  the  price  of  a 
single  one,  and  fed  at  a  less  cost  than  the  single  laborer.  Steam-enf^ines 
count  by  tens  of  thousands,  and  the  work  performed  by  them  is  probably 
equal  to  the  whole  labor  power  of  the  South.  At  the  North  human  labor  is 
every  where  economized,  while  at  the  South  it  is  every  where  wasted.  The 
natural  consequence  is  that  capital  accumulates  at  the  North  with  vastly 
greater  rapidity  than  at  the  South.  The  papers  of  the  day  inform  us  that 
the  taxable  property  of  Pennsylvania  is  valued  by  the  revenue  board  of  that 
State  at  $880,000,000,  and  if  to  this  we  add  that  which  is  not  liable  to  tax- 
ation, we  shall  obtain  a  sum  little  less  than  a  thousand  millions,  or  more 
than  the  value  in  1850  of  all  the  land  in  the  States  above  given  to  a  South- 
ern Union.  Aided  by  all  this  machinery,  the  quantity  of  Northern  produc- 
tion is  immense,  when  compared  with  that  of  the  South,  and  of  this  we 
could  scarcely  desire  better  evidence  than  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  mer- 
chandise carried  on  the  Pennsylvania  canal,  and  the  Erie  canal,  alone 
amounts  to  five  millions  of  tons,  or  ten  times  the  weight  of  the  crop  pro- 
duced in  the  ten  cotton-growing  States,  that  have,  with  the  exception  of 
sugar,  little  else  to  give  to  the  world  in  exchange  for  all  they  need  to  ob- 
tain. It  is,  we  think,  quite  impossible  to  examine  these  facts  without  a 
feeling  of  surprise  at  the  entire  insignificance  of  the  trade  for  which  the 
North  is  indebted  to  the  Union. 

In  estimating  the  "  power  and  gain  "  to  the  North  resulting  from  its 
union  tvith  the  South,  it  is  required  that  the  reader  should  remark  that  the 
tohole  of  their  own  vast  product  is  in  constant  course  of  being  exchanged 
among  themselves ;  whereas,  it  is  only  the  exchangeable  surplus  of  the 
South  with  which  the  people  outside  of  those  States  have  any  thing  to  do. 
The  man  of  New  York  derives  no  advantage  from  the  corn  that  is  fed  in 
Virginia  to  the  slave  that  is  raised  for  exportation  to  Mississippi.  The 
com  raised  in  Alabama  appears  abroad  only  in  the  form  of  cotton,  while 
that  of  Louisiana  comes  to  the  North  only  as  sugar  or  molasses.  The 
whole  exportable  product  of  the  South  consists  of  cotton,  tobacco,  rice, 
naval  stores,  sugar,  hemp,  and  some  grain,  chiefly  from  "Virginia  and  North 
Carolina.  The  value  of  the  first  six,  as  given  by  De  Bow,  for  1850,  was,  as 
the  reader  has  seen,  $138,000,000,  fifty-three  of  which  were  for  domestic 
consumption,  and  eighty-five  for  export.  The  cotton,  sugar,  and  other 
commodities  required  for  their  own  consumption,  are  to  be  deducted,  and 
this  would  leave  the  Northern  consumption  at  about  $50,000,000.  The 
mode  in  which  these  quantities  are  divided  would  seem  to  be  as  follows : 

Exported  from  Houtliern  ports,  and  paid  for  by  imports  into  those  ports 

from  foreign  countries,   $15,000,000 

Exported  from  Southern  ports,  and  paid  for  by  imports  from,  or  through, 

the  North   59,000,000 

Exported  from  Northern  ports,  and  paid  for  from,  or  through,  the  North,  9,000,000 

Retained  for  consumption  at  the  North,   50,000,000 

Total  $133,000,000 

From  this  the  reader  will  readily  perceive  that  the  total  amount  of  trade 
from  which  the  North  can  derive  any  "  power  or  gain,"  is  but  $118,000,000, 
or  about  four  per  cent,  of  its  owu  productive  power.   The  question  to  be 


Appendix. 


471 


settled  is,  however,  not  the  total  quantity,  but  how  much  of  it  is  due  to  the 
Union,  and  how  much  would  be  lost  by  a  dissolution  of  that  Union.  So 
far  as  the  South  exports  and  imports  directly,  the  North  has  no  more  to 
gain  from  it  than  from  the  export  of  Negroes  to  Alabama  or  Texas.  Next, 
so  far  as  regards  the  export  of  iifty-nine  millions  to  foreign  ports  from 
Southern  ones,  it  gains  nothing  by  the  Union,  because  Northern  ships 
enjoy  in  those  ports  no  advantage  over  foreign  ones,  and  they  have,  there- 
fore, nothing  to  lose  by  secession.  If  a  Boston  ship  vnll  carry  cotton  as 
cheaply  as  an  English  or  French  one,  she  will  have  it  to  carry,  and  not 
else.  Again,  as  regards  the  export  of  Southern  products  from  Northern 
ports,  there  would  seem  to  be  little  to  lose,  for  the  reasons  for  this  trade 
would  continue  then  to  be  the  same  as  now.  We  import  largely  of  men 
and  other  valuable  commodities  into  Northern  ports,  and  can,  under  ordi- 
nary circumstances,  afford  to  take  return  freight  so  cheaply  as  to  offer  an 
inducement  to  bring  cotton  and  other  Southern  products  to  Northern  ports 
on  their  way  to  Europe.  So  far  as  regards  navigation,  and  the  profits  of 
the  export  trade,  then,  there  would  seem  to  be  nothing  whatever  to  be  lost 
by  separation. 

The  amount  of  Southern  products  paid  for  by,  or  through,  the  North, 
would  seem  to  be  about  $118,000,000,  of  which  the  quantity  required  for 
consumption  at  the  North  is  $'50,000,000.  It  is  quite  certain  that  this  trade 
ot  importation  for  home  consumption  would  continue,  because  we  should 
certainly  be  willing  to  pay  the  highest  prices,  and  the  South  would  not 
decline  to  sell  because  the  Union  had  been  dissolved.  As  regards  the 
exportation  of  goods  to  pay  for  them,  the  case  would,  however,  be  some- 
what, though,  we  think,  not  very  widely  different. 

The  South  would  then  be  in  the  same  situation  with  Canada ;  with,  how- 
ever, this  disadvantage,  that  the  latter  builds  and  sails  ships,  which  the 
former  does  not,  except  to  a  very  small  extent.  Even  now,  Canada  looks 
anxiously  to  a  market  in  the  Union.  She  can  send  her  wheat  to  England, 
duty  free,  either  direct  or  through  our  ports ;  and  yet  the  price  is  always 
lower  on  the  north  of  the  line  than  it  is  on  the  south  of  it,  by  the  whole 
amount  of  duty.  She  can  have  direct  trade  with  England,  duty  free,  and 
yet  she  takes  from  us  goods  to  the  extent  of  five  millions  of  dollars  per  an- 
num, in  payment  for  her  produce.  With  the  South,  the  case  is  yet  much 
stronger.  Of  all  the  articles  of  domestic  production  now  sold  to  the  South, 
a  very  large  portion,  including,  of  course,  the  products  of  the  West,  are 
cheaper  than  they  can  be  obtained  elsewhere,  and  we  must  continue  to 
supply  them.  As  regards  foreign  commodities,  Boston  will  continue  to  im- 
port India  goods ;  New  York,  teas ;  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore,  coffee  ; 
and  all  will  import  the  finer  commodities  of  Europe,  for  the  supply  of  the 
Southern  as  well  as  the  Northern  States  that  now  constitute  the  Union. 
Many  of  these  goods  will  be  exported  South  in  bond,  as  they  are  now  ex- 
ported to  Canada  and  Cuba,  but  they  must  continue  to  pass  through  North- 
ern ports.  Admit,  however,  what  we  believe  to  be  impossible,  that  one 
half  of  this  one  hundred  and  eighteen  millions  should  be  imported  into  the 
South  directly  from  abroad,  and  that  we  should  lose  on  this  one  half,  in 
commissions  and  profits  of  various  kinds,  twenty-five  per  cent.,  the  total 


472 


Appendix. 


amount  of  "  power  and  gain  "  to  be  lost  by  a  dissolution  of  the  Union 
would  appear  to  be  less  than  fifteen  millions  of  dollars,  or  about  eighty- 
cents  per  head  of  the  Northern  Union.  Against  this,  however,  there  would 
be,  connected  with  our  foreign  trade,  important  offsets.  Sugar  would  then 
be  free  as  tea  and  coffee  now  are,  and  as  we  should  be  released  from  any 
necessity  for  interfering  against  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of 
Cuba,  it  may  fairly  be  inferred  that  the  trade  with  that  island,  and  also  with 
Brazil,  would  be  greatly  increased,  and  that  we  should  derive  from  them 
nearly  all  the  sugar,  of  which  we  take  now  to  the  amount  of  fourteen  mil- 
lions from  the  South.  We  should  .also  be  at  liberty  to  recognize  the  free 
people  of  St.  Domingo,  and  of  Liberia,  and  our  trade  in  those  quarters 
would  grow  with  great  rapidity.  These  would,  to  a  great  extent,  make 
amends  for  diminution  at  the  South,  and  would,  as  we  think,  lessen  the 
loss  to  one  half,  or  about  seven  millions  of  dollars,  at  which  sum,  or  forty 
cents  per  head,  we  feel  disposed,  after  this  examination,  to  estimate  the 
pecuniary  value  of  the  Union  to  the  North.  What  is  the  cost  of  that 
Union,  we  propose  next  to  consider. 

COST  OF  THE  UNION. 

The  policy  pf  the  North  looks  homeward.  Northern  men  seek  no  en- 
largement of  territory,  but  they  desire  to  render  productive  what  they  have. 
To  accomp'ish  that  object  they  need  canals,  railroads,  light-houses,  and 
the  removal  of  obstructions  to  the  navigation  of  rivers,  and  for  these  latter 
purposes  they  have  steadily  and  regularly  asked  the  aid  of  Congress. 

Southern  policy  looks  outward.  Southern  men  seek  additions  to  their 
territory,  but  they  do  not  endeavor  to  render  productive  what  they  have- 
Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Virginia,  and  much  of  the  Carolinas,  and  of  Ken- 
tucky, have  been  exhausted  by  abstracting  from  the  soil  all  the  elements 
of  production,  and  the  occupants  of  their  exhaiisted  lands  find  themselves 
forced  to  seek  abroad  for  new  lands  to  be  in  their  turn  exhausted — and 
hence  it  is  that  the  South  is  always  on  the  watch  to  secure,  by  war  or 
purchase,  enlargements  of  its  surface.  Southern  men,  consequently,  deny 
to  the  government  the  right  of  aiding  in  the  construction  of  roads  or 
canals,  or  of  appropriating  from  the  treasury  any  moneys  to  be  used  in  the 
construction  of  light-houses,  the  formation  of  harbors,  or  the  removal  of 
obstructions  from  rivers ;  and  it  is  to  meet  Southern  objections  to  govern- 
mental action  that  it  is  now  proposed  to  establish  a  great  system  of  local 
taxation,  calculated  largely  to  interfere  with  the  free  circulation  of  men 
and  merchandise  throughout  the  Union. 

Half  a  century  since,  the  great  territory  of  Louisiana  was  purchased,  chief- 
ly for  the  South.  At  the  close  of  that  long  period  the  North  has  obtained 
from  it  but  a  single  State,  while  the  South  has  had  already  three,  and  now 
insists  that  the  whole  vast  territory  which  yet  remains  unoccupied  shall  be 
throT^Ti  open  to  cultivation  by  slaves,  and  to  ownership  by  the  owners  of 
those  slaves.  In  1820,  the  territory  of  Florida  was  purchased  for  the  South, 
at  a  cost  of  seven  millions  of  dollars,  paid  out  by  taxes  imposed  on  proper- 
ty of  the  North  and  South.   In  the  eight  years  succeeding  that  purchase 


Appendix. 


473 


—  from  1821  to  1829 — the  nnnual  expenditure  of  the  government,  exclusive 
of  the  payment  of  the  national  debt,  was  but  thirteen  millions  of  dollars, 
and  yet  out  of  that  small  sum,  considerable  suras  were  appropriated  to  the 
Cumberland  road,  and  other  works  of  internal  improvement. 

The  administration  of  General  Jackson  succeeded  that  of  Mr.  Adams  in 
1829,  and  the  expenditure  rose  in  the  first  term  to  nearly  seventeen  mil- 
lions, while  in  the  second  it  was  more  than  twenty-five  millions,  little  if 
any  of  which  was  expended  on  any  of  those  works  of  peace  desired  by  the 
North,  because  the  South  had  then  determined  that  all  such  appropriations 
were  violations  of  the  Constitution.  It  was,  however,  deemed  perfectly 
constitutional  to  swell  the  military  and  naval  expenditure  from  eight  mil- 
lions, in  1828,  to  twenty-two  millions,  in  1836,  because  the  object  of  th«t 
increase  was  the  extirpation  of  the  few  and  poor  Seminoles  of  Florida, 
whose  occupation  interfered  with  the  enlargement  of  the  field  of  slave 
labor. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  followed,  and  in  his  period  we  find  the  expenditure  to 
have  been  carried  up  to  an  average  of  thirty  millions,  no  part  of  which  was 
allowed  to  be  appropriated  to  internal  improvements  asked  for  by  the 
North,  while  the  Florida  war  was  permitted  to  absorb  enormous  masses  of 
treasure  contributed  by  the  people  of  the  Union,  North  and  South.  In  the 
first  two  years  of  his  administration,  the  expenditure  for  military  purposes 
averaged  no  less  than  twenty-one  millions,  and  the  total  amount  so  ex- 
pended in  the  four  years,  was  sixty-eight  millions,  or  sixteen  mi}lii;i)s 
more  than  was  expended  for  all  purposes  by  Mr.  Adams.  It  was,  how  ever, 
for  Southern  purposes,  and  therefore  constitutional. 

Under  the  succeeding  administration,  the  total  expenditure  was  reduced 
to  twenty  millions,  or  less  than  has  been  expended  on  the  army  and  navy 
alone  by  Mr.  Van  Buren,  while  engaged  in  clearing  out  the  Seminoles. 
The  death  of  General  Harrison  having  thrown  the  executive  power  into 
Southern  hands,  we  find  that  twice  during  Mr.  Tyler's  occupation  of  the 
presidential  chair  was  the  veto  applied  to  bills  intended  to  satisfy  the  just 
expectations  of  Northern  men  anxious  to  improve  the  intercourse  by  the 
lakes  and  rivers  of  the  West. 

With  Mr.  Polk  came  the  war  for  settling  the  boundaries  of  Texas,  aud 
enlarging  the  area  of  slave  territory,  and  now  the  expenditure  rose  to  un 
average  of  forty-four  millions,  chiefly  bestowed  on  the  army  and  navy. 
Large,  however,  as  was  the  amount  to  be  expended,  not  a  dollar  could  go 
for  the  promotion  of  the  peaceful  improvements  of  the  North  ;  for  when, 
in  1845,  Congress  appropriated  about  a  million  of  dollars  for  improveint  jits 
on  the  lakes  and  Western  rivers,  the  bill  was  vetoed  by  Mr.  Polk  as  uiic(;n- 
stitutional ;  and  when,  in  18-t6,  a  still  more  modest  bill  was  sent  to  liim, 
appropriating  only  half  a  million  to  all  such  purposes,  he  pocketed  it,  ;nid 
it  failed  to  become  a  law.  The  same  difficulty  occurred  in  regard  to  a  bill 
for  the  payment  of  the  debt  owing  by  the  nation  to  the  unfortunate  chiini- 
ants  on  account  of  French  spoliations.  Passed  by  Congress,  it  was  vetoed 
by  the  President,  because  inconvenient  to  pay  such  claims  while  engaged  in 
a  war  for  the  extension  of  territory  on  our  southern  and  south-western 
40* 


474 


Appendix. 


borders.  To  secure  that  extension  we  had  to  support  an  expensive  war,  and 
finally  to  pay  fifteen  millions  to  the  Mexican  Government ;  but,  happily 
"  squatter  government"  secured  to  the  Northern  States  a  portion  of  the 
territory  for  nearly  all  of  which  they  had  been  required  to  pay. 

Texas  had  been  dragged  into  the  Union  by  Mr.  Polk,  and  in  1850  the 
people  of  the  North  were  required  to  unite  in  paying  ten  millions  for  this 
enlargement  of  slave  territory. 

The  expenditure  seems  now  to  be  fixed  at  from  forty  to  fifty  millions  of 
dollars,  of  which  the  military  and  naval  department,  exclusive  of  the  con- 
tracts for  mail  steamers,  require  more  than  twenty,  or  one  half  more  than 
was  expended  hy  Mr.  Adams  for  all  purposes,  internal  and  external.  Hav- 
ing purchased  Louisiana,  Florida.  Texas,  and  New  Mexico  for  the  South, 
we  have  but  just  escaped  the  payment  of  twenty  millions  for  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  area  of  Slavery,  accomplished  by  General  Gadsden,  and  yet 
not  a  dollar  is  likely  to  be  obtained  for  removing  obstructions  from  the 
great  rivers  of  the  West,  or  for  improving  the  harbors  of  the  lakes.  Any 
amount  may  be  lavished  upon  foreign  missions,  having  for  their  object  the 
removal  of  restrictions  on  the  tobacco  trade  of  France  or  Germany,  because 
that  interests  the  South ;  but  the  treasury  is  hermetically  sealed  against 
the  claims  of  the  North  for  any  aid  in  developing  the  resources  of  its  terri- 
tory, or  in  facilitating  intercourse  between  the  States  of  the  East  and  the 
West. 

We  beg  our  readers  to  reflect  carefully  upon  these  facts,  and  then  to 
study  how  much  expenditure  would  be  required  for  a  Northern  Union.  We 
need  scarcely  any  army,  for  we  desire  no  extension  of  territory.  We  do 
not  desire  to  add  Canada  to  the  Union,  and  were  the  offer  of  annexation  at 
this  moment  made  it  might  not  be  accepted,  while  the  South  is  always  at 
work  to  obtain  territory,  by  purchase  or  by  force  of  arms.  But  recently,  it 
offered  a  hundred  millions  for  Cuba,  to  be  paid  out  of  the  revenue  contrib- 
uted by  all  the  States,  and  the  chief  reason  for  so  doing  was  the  danger 
that  the  slaves  of  that  island  might,  at  some  future  time,  become  free,  and 
thus  be  placed  in  a  situation  that  would  render  them  dangerous  to  their 
slaveholding  neighbors  of  Florida  and  Carolina.  The  North  d^res  not 
even  propose  to  accept,  free  of  cost,  the  British  possessions,  with  two  and 
a  half  millions  of  free  inhabitants;  and  yet  the  South  does  not  hesitate  at 
buying  Cuba  at  a  hundred  millions,  nor  would  it  hesitate  about  involving 
the  whole  country  in  a  war  that  might  cost  twice  that  sum,  for  the  purpose 
of  preventing  any  movement  in  the  island  looking  to  the  gradual  enfran- 
chisement of  its  Negro  population. 

The  North,  as  we  have  said,  scarcely  needs  an  army.  It  has  but  little 
need  for  a  navy ;  but  even  admitting  that  five  millions  were  required  for 
that  purpose,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  expenditure  of  Mr.  Adams  could 
be  much  exceeded.  The  post-office  of  a  Northern  Union  would  support  it- 
self at  lower  rates  than  those  now  paid,  for  we  have  thrice  the  amount  of 
population  capable  of  maintaining  correspondence,  and  three  times  thrice 
the  quantity  of  exchanges,  while  the  organized  territory  of  the  South  is 
greater  by  almost  one  half  than  that  of  the  North.  The  diplomacy  of  a 


Appendix. 


475 


Northern  Uniovi  would  require  small  expenditure,  for  we  have  nothing  to 
ask  for,  and  there  is  nothing  for  which  we  desire  to  fight.  Northern  policy 
loQks,  as  we  have  said,  always  homeward,  while  that  of  the  South  looks 
always  outward,  as  witness  the  constantly  repeated  invasions  of  Texas  and 
of  Cuba. 

Admitting,  however,  that  the^  expenditures  of  a  Northern  Union  should 
reach  the  sum  of  twenty  millions,  even  that  is  less  by  five  and  twenty 
millions  than  its  present  amount  —  and  not  one  half  of  that  excess  is  paid 
by  the  South.  How,  indeed  should  it  be  ?  Nearly  all  our  revenue  comes 
from  duties  on  foreign  merchandise,  of  which  slaves  consume  but  little, 
and  the  poorer  class  of  white  people  of  the  South  consume  but  little  more. 
Taking,  however,  the  whole  white  population  of  the  South,  we  h.ave  but 
five  millions  of  consumers  to  put  against  thrice  that  number  at  the  North , 
and  if  the  consumption,  per  head,  were  equally  great  in  all  portions  of 
the  Union,  their  contributions  would  be  but  one  fourth  of  the  whole,  or 
about  one  half  of  the  twenty-five  millions  of  excess  expenditure.  That  the 
Southern  consumption,  per  head,  will  average  less,  and  much  less,  than 
that  of  the  North,  no  one  can  doubt ;  and  it  is,  we  think,  quite  as  little  to 
be  doubted  that  the  contributions  of  the  South  towards  the  revenue  are 
less  than  ten  millions  of  dollars  —  a  sum  not  more  than  sufficient  to  pay 
t/w  mere  interest  upon  the  sums  expended  in  the  purchase  of  Southern 
land,  and  on  the  making  of  wars  for  Southern  purposes.  We  are  now 
about  to  spend  twenty  millions  more,  and  if  Cuba  can  be  had  at  a  hundred 
millions,  it  will  be  bought  —  and  the  interest  upon  these  two  sums  alone 
will  amount  to  seven  millions  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  a  large 
portion  of  the  whole  amount  of  contributions  furnished  by  the  South. 
The  same  men  who  now  urge  upon  the  whole  Union  these  enormous  ex- 
penditures for  Southern  purposes,  deem  it  so  highly  unconstitutional  to 
appropriate  a  single  dollar  for  the  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  that 
to  keep  within  the  letter  of  the  law  they  would  violate  its  spirit  by  author- 
izing states,  counties,  cities,  and  towns  to  make  improvements  and  charge 
tonnage  duties  upon  ships  and  merchandise,  by  which  Iowa  and  Illinois, 
Missouri  and  Kentucky,  would  be  compelled  to  contribute  largely  in  tax- 
ation for  the  promotion  of  the  trade  of  New  Orleans. 

We  are  assured  that  all  these  expenditures  are  necessary  to  provide  an 
outlet  for  the  rapidly  growing  negro  population.  Well !  the  land  is  pur- 
chased, and  next,  we  are  told  that  labor  is  scarce  — that  negroes  are  high 
—  that  it  is  uniust  to  permit  Alabama  and  Texas  to  be  taxed  by  Virginia 
to  the  extent  of  a  thousand  dollars  for  a  Negro,  when  as  good  a  one  can 
be  brought  from  Africa  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  —  and  that,  there- 
fore, we  should  re<!stablish  the  African  slave-trade.  Such  is  the  tendency 
of  things,  and  such  is  the  end  to  which  we  are  pointed  at  the  close  of 
much  less  than  a  ccntuiy  after  the  publication  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, in  which  it  was  asserted  that  all  men  were  born  "free  and 
equal."  Prussia  has  emancipated  her  serfs,  and  Kussia  and  Austria  are 
now  moving  steadily  towards  the  perfect  enfranchisement  of  their  people, 
but  we  of  the  North  are  paying  many  millions  of  dollars  annually  for  the 


476 


Appendix. 


enlargement  of  Slave  territory,  to  end  in  reestablishing  the  infamous 
trade  by  which  Africa  was  so  long  degraded  and  depopulated.  At  this 
moment,  we  are  urged  to  expend  several  millions  on  the  enlargement  of 
our  steam  marine,  and  among  the  important  reasons  for  this  measure  of- 
fered by  Mr.  Bocock,  of  Virginia,  is,  that "  the  latent  spark  "  of  Freedom  is 
likely  now  to  blaze  out  in  Cuba,  when  the  "blood  of  Mr.  Crittenden  and 
his  companions  will  not  in  vain  cry  for  vengeance."  Should,  however,  the 
spark  of  Freedom  blaze  out  among  the  laborers  of  that  island,  their  steam- 
ships will  certainly  be  used  for  its  extinguishment.  Mr.  Bocock  is  for 
extending  the  area  of  Slavery,  and  not  that  of  Freedom,  and  it  is  for  that 
object  he  would  have  us  build  so  many  ships. 

There  are  in  the  United  States,  as  we  are  told,  234  colleges,  with  1,651 
teachers,  27,159  students,  and  an  annual  income  of  $452,314  from  endow- 
ments, $15,485  from  taxation,  $184,549  from  public  funds,  and  $1,264,280 
from  other  sources ;  making,  in  all,  $1,916,628.  Of  public  schools,  for 
common  and  academic  education,  there  are  80,991,  with  92,000  teachers, 
3,354,173  pupils,  and  an  income  of  $182,594  from  endowments,  $1,086,414 
from  taxes,  $'2,547,669  from  public  funds,  and  2,147,853  from  all  other 
sources ;  reaching  a  total  of  $9,591,530.  Add  these  two  sums,  and  we  find 
an  expenditure  for  popular  education,  in  all  its  departments,  of  11,508,158 
of  dollars.  Of  this,  the  proportion  expended  iiorth  of  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line  is  probably  about  not  less  than  four  fifths,  or  more  than  nine  millions 
of  dollars ;  a  considerable  sum  certainly,  but  yet  less  than  the  interest  on  the 
expenditures  for  purchasinff  Florida  and  exterminating  the  Scminolcs — for 
purchasing  Texas  and  carrying  on  the  war  that  was  declared  to  **  exists* 
when  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  enlarge  tlte  bounds  of  that  State  by  sciz- 
ing  on  New  Mexico. 

Of  the  hundred  millions  already  offered  hy  the  South  for  Cuba,  four 
fifths  would  be  paid  by  the  North ;  and  if  Northern  men  desire  to  under- 
stand the  object  for  which  they  are  required  to  pay  this  enormous  sum, 
they  will  obtain  the  information  by  reading  tlie  following  passage  from  the 
Richmond  Enquirer : 

*'  Our  view  of  the  iwlicy  of  this  ineastire,  as  of  tvenj  other,  is  detomiined  by  tho 
paramount  and  ecmtrolUii<r  cnnsideration  of  Southern  interextt.  It  is  because  wo  re- 
gard tlio  acquisition  of  Cuba  as  e.i.Hential  to  the  stnbilitij  of  the  system  of  Slavery,  and 
to  the  just  ascendency  of  the  South,  that  wo  consont  to  forc;;o  our  liabituiil  repugnance 
to  political  change,  and  to  advocate  a  measure  of  such  vast,  and,  in  some  respects, 
uucertain  conse(|uenccs.  Tho  only  possible  way  in  wliich  tiio  South  can  indemnify 
itself  for  its  concessions  to  tho  Anti-slavery  fanaticism,  is  by  tho  acquisition  of  addi- 
tional slave  territory,  .  .  .  We  must  reinforce  the  powers  of  Slai-ery  as  an  clement  of  politi- 
cal control,  and  this  can  only  bo  done  by  the  annexation  of  Cuba,  In  no  other  direction 
is  there  a  clianco  fur  the  agizrnndi/.ement  of  Slavery.  The  intrigues  of  Great  Uritaiu 
for  the  abolition  of  Slarery  in  that  island  are  pursued  With  a  zeal  and  an  enorpy 
whicil  cannot  fail  of  success,  unless  the  United  States  interfere  to  prevent  the  consumma- 
tion. The  only  effectual  mode  by  which  this  may  be  done,  is  by  Vie.  transfer  of  the 
island  to  the  dominion  of  the  States.  If  wecnnteinplato  the  possible  alternative  of  the 
dLiraption  of  the  Union,  by  the  mad  s-pirit  of  abolition,  the  necessity  for  the  acijuisilion 
of  Cuba  as  a  support  to  tite  Saiith,  becomes  eren  mure  manifi^st  and  urgent.  With  Cuba 
in  the  possession  of  a  liostilo  interest,  Southern  Slavery  would  be  exposed  to  an 
assault  which  it  could  neither  resist  nor  endure.  Willi  Cuba  as  a  member  of  a  great 
Southern  confederacy.  Slavery  mi.irht  bid  defiance  to  its  enemies." 

The  following  pleasant  and  suggestive  article  is  from  The  Southern 


Appendix. 


477 


Standard,  an  administration  paper,  published  at  Charleston,  South  Caro- 
lina. It  is  a  frank,  bold  statement  of  the  policy  of  the  administration 
upon  the  Slavery  question,  which  our  readers  will  do  well  to  look  at  by 
way  of  refreshing  themselves.   It  will  amply  repay  perusal : 

"  A  general  rupture  in  Europe  would  force  upon  us  the  undisputed  sway  of  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  West  Indies,  with  all  their  rich  and  mighty  productions. 
Guided  by  our  genius  and  enterprise,  a  new  world  would  rise  there,  as  it  did  before 
under  the  genius  of  Culumbiis.  With  Cuba  and  St.  Domingo,  we  could  control  the 
productions  of  the  tropics,  and,  with  them,  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  with  that, 
the  power  of  the  world.  Our  true  policy  is  to  look  to  Brazil  as  the  next  great  Slave 
power,  and  as  the  government  that  is  to  direct  or  license  tlie  developniont  of  the 
country  drained  by  the  Amazon.  Instead  of  courting  England,  we  should  look  to 
Brazil  and  the  West  Indies.  The  time  will  come  when  a  treaty  of  commerce  and 
alliance  with  Brazil  will  give  us  the  control  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  its  border 
countries,  together  with  the  islands,  and  the  consequence  of  this  will  place  African 
Slavery  beyond  the  reach  cf  fanaticism,  at  home  or  abroad.  These  two  great  Slave 
powers  now  hold  more  undeveloped  territory  than  any  other  two  governments,  and 
they  ought  to  guard  and  strengthen  their  mutual  interests  by  acting  together  in 
strict  hnrniony  and  concert.  Considering  our  vast  resources  and  the  mighty  com- 
merce that  is  about  to  expand  upon  the  bosom  of  tlie  two  countries,  if  we  act  to- 
getlicr  by  treaty  we  cannot  only  preserve  domestic  servitude,  but  we  can  defy  the  power 
of  tlie  world.  With  firmness  and  judgment,  we  can  open  up  the  African  slave-em- 
igration, again  to  people  the  noble  region  of  the  tropics.  We  can  boldly  defend  this 
upon  the  most  enlarged  system  of  philanthropy.  It  is  far  better  for  the  wild  races 
of  Africa  themselves.  Look  at  the  3,000,000  in  the  United  States  who  have  had  the 
blessings  not  only  of  civilization  but  of  Christianity.  Can  any  man  pretend  to  say 
that  they  would  have  been  better  off  in  the  barbarian  state  of  their  native  wilder- 
ness ?  and  has. not  the  attempt  to  suppress,  by  force,  this  emisration  increased  the 
horrors  of  the  '  middle  iiassage  >  tenfold  ?  The  good  old  Las  Casas,  in  1519,  was  the 
first  to  advise  Spain  to  import  Africans  to  her  colonies,  as  a  substitute  for  the  poor 
Indians,  who,  from  their  peculiar  nature,  were  totally  unsuited  to  bear  the  labors  of 
Slavery.  Experience  has  sliown  that  his  scheme  was  founded  in  wise  and  Chris- 
tian philanthropy.  Millions  of  the  black  men,  yet  unborn,  will  rise  up  to  blesis  his 
benevolent  memory.  The  time  is  coming  when  we  will  boldly  defend  this  emigra- 
tion before  the  world.  The  hypocritical  cant  and  whining  morality  of  the  latter- 
day  saints  will  die  away  before  the  majesty  of  commerce,  and  the  power  of  those 
vast  productions  which  are  to  spring  from  the  cultivation  and  full  development  on 
the  mighty  tropical  regions  in  our  own  hemisphere.  If  it  be  mercy  to  give  the  grain 
growing  sections  of  America  to  the  pour  and  hungry  of  Europe,  why  not  open  up 
the  tropics  to  the  poor  African?  The  one  region  is  as  eminently  suited  to  them  as 
the  other  is  to  the  white  race.  There  is  as  much  philanthropy  in  one  as  the  other. 
We  have  been  too  long  governed  by  psalm-singing  schoolmasters  from  the  North. 
It  is  time  to  tliink  for  ourselves.  The  folly  commenced  in  our  own  government 
uniting  with  Great  Britain  to  declare  Slave  importation  piracy.  Piracy  is  a  crime 
on  the  high  seas,  arising  under  tlie  law  of  nations,  and  it  is  as  well  defined  hy  those 
laws  as  murder  is  at  common  law.  And  for  two  nations  to  attempt  to  m-iice  that 
piracy  which  is  not  so,  under  the  law  of  nations,  is  an  absurdity.  You  might  as 
well  declare  it  burglary,  or  arson,  or  any  thing  else.  And  we  have  ever  since,  by  a 
joint  fleet  with  Great  B'ritain  on  the  cost  of  Africa,  been  struggling  to  enforce  this 
miserable  blunder.  The  time  will  come  that  all  the  islands  and  regions  suited  to 
African  Slavery,  between  us  and  Brazil,  will  fall  under  the  control  of  these  two 
Slave  powers,  in  some  shape  or  other,  either  by  treaty  or  actual  possession  of  tlie 
one  government  or  the  other.  And  the  f-tatesman  who  closes  his  eyes  to  these 
results,  has  but  a  very  small  view  of  the  great  questions  and  interests  that  are  loom- 
ing up  in  the  future.  In  a  few  years,  there  will  be  no  investment  of  the  two  hun- 
dred millions,  in  the  annual  increase  of  gold  on  a  large  scale,  so  profitable  and  so 
necessary,  as  the  development  and  cultivation  of  the  tropical  regions  now  slumber- 
ing in  rank  and  wild  luxuriance.  If  the  slaveholding  race  in  these  States  are  but 
true  to  themselves,  they  have  a  great  destiny  before  them." 

As  the  first  steps  towards  the  accomplishment  of  these  objects,  we  are 
now  to  convert  the  Mesilla  Valley  into  Slave  territory,  and  to  arrange 
for  bringing  the  Negroes  of  Cuba  within  the  Union,  and  thus  forever  to 


478 


Appendix. 


prevent  that  island  from  becoming  the  property  of  free  black  men ;  and  the 
mere  annual  interests  of  these  two  purchases  — to  say  nothing  of  the  ad- 
ditional army  and  navy  that  will  be  required  —  will  amount  to  four-fifths 
of  the  whole  amount  now  paid  for  educational  purposes  throughout  the 
Free  States  of  the  Union. 

Having  studied  these  facts,  we  beg  our  readers  now  to  remark  hrtv  fully 
they  bear  out  the  statement  of  the  Charleston  Courier  as  to  the  error  of 
those  who  suppose  "  that  the  action  of  the  general  government  has  been 
hostile  to  Slavery."  "The  truth  is,"  as  it  continues,  "that  although  hos- 
tile in  its  incipiency,  to  domestic  Slavery,  it  afterwards  so  changed  its 
action  that  it  has  fostered  the  Slaveholding  interest,"  and  this  it  has  done 
by  taxing  the  free  people  of  the  North  for  the  steady  extension  of  the  area 
of  Slavery,  while  denying  the  constitutionality  of  any  expenditures  tend- 
ing to  the  improvement  of  ths  lands,  or  of  the  people,  of  the  North  and 
West. 

Such  is  a  portion  of  the  cost  of  the  Union.  What  is  its  value  has  been 
shown.  On  a  future  occasion  we  shall  furnish  some  further  items  of  the 
cost ;  but  meantime  will  beg  our  readers  to  reflect  v;hether  a  trade  that 
cannot  be  worth  a  dozen  millions  per  annum  is  not  dearly  paid  for  by  the 
maintenance  of  a  system  that  takes  from  the  North  so  many  millions  an- 
nually to  be  applied  to  the  purchase  of  Southern  land,  and  the  support  of 
Southern  wars,  when  they  might  so  advantageously  be  applied  to  the  im- 
provement of  rivers  and  harbors  by  which  Northern  farmers  could  cheaply 
get  to  market,  and  the  improvement  of  schools  at  which  Northern  children 
might  be  cheaply  educated. 

THE  GREAT  STRUGGLE. 

The  history  of  the  world  from  tho  earliest  ages  is  little  more  than  a 
record  of  the  efforts  of  the  strong  who  have  desired  to  enslave  the  weak, 
and  of  the  counter  efForts  of  the  latter  to  obtain  power  to  work  for  them- 
selves. The  former  have,  in  all  ages,  been  large  monopolists  of  land, 
while  the  latter  have  at  all  times  sought  to  obtain  homesteads  to  be  im- 
proved for  their  own  benefit  and  that  of  their  wives  and  childicn.  The 
former  have  always  sought  cheap  laborers,  desiring  to  purchase  at  their 
bwn  prices,  the  bone,  the  muscle,  and  the  sinew  required  for  their  pur- 
poses, selling  at  the  dearest  rate  the  produce  of  the  labor  of  their  slaves  ; 
while  the  latter  have  always  desired  to  fix  the  price  of  their  own  labor,  and 
to  profit  by  their  own  exertions.  By  the  former,  honest  labor  has  been 
held  in  low  esteem,  because  they  lived  at  the  cost  of  those  who  labored  in 
the  field  for  the  production  of  food  or  wool,  and  those  in  the  town  who  con- 
sumed the  food  while  making  the  cloth.  By  the  latter,  labor  has  been 
esteemed  as  a  means  of  acquiring  honest  independence.  In  the  former 
class  v'c  find  the  Slave-owners,  politicians,  and  tax-consumers  of  the 
world,  while  in  the  latter  we  find  the  laborers  and  tax-payers  of  the  world. 
In  the  one  we  find  the  advocates  of  armies  and  navies,  war  and  fiUibus- 
terism,  and  in  the  other  the  friends  of  peace  and  cheap  government. 


Appendix. 


479 


feetween  these  classes  there  has,  from  time  immemorial,  been  a  contest  for 
power ;  the  one  desiring  to  tyrannize  over  others,  and  the  other  to  govern 
themselves,  and  to  work  for  their  own  profit. 

Such  is  the  contest  now  in  progress  throughout  this  country.  The  great 
issue  of  our  day  is,  as  we  are  informed  by  the  Charleston  Evening  Netos, 
"  the  extension  or  non-extension,  of  the  institution  [Slavery]  whose  foun- 
dations arc  broad  anrl  solid  in  our  midst."  It  is,  whether  free  labor  shall 
become  slave  labor,  or  slave  labor  become  free  labor.  At  the  South,  we  see 
a  body  of  great  land-owners  surrounded  by  slaves  who  work  for  them,  while 
they  themselves  live  upon  the  profits  der?'  Dd  from  standing  between  the 
men  who  work  to  produce  cotton,  sugar,  and  tobacco,  and  those  other  men 
who  require  to  consume  those  commodities.  At  the  North,  on  the  contra- 
ry, we  see  the  whole  surface  of  the  country  divided  among  a  body  of  small 
land-owners,  unequalled  in  the  world  for  number,  all  working  for  them- 
selves. On  the  one  side  we  have  a  large  body  of  men  who  desire  to  buy 
labor,  and  wish  to  have  it  cheaply ;  while  on  the  other  there  is  a  vastly 
larger  body  that  desire  to  sell  labor,  and  to  sell  it  dearly.  The  objects 
sought  to  be  attained  by  the  two  sections  of  the  country  differ  as  widely  as 
do  the  poles  of  the  compass,  and  it  can,  therefore,  be  matter  of  small  sur- 
prise that  there  is  almost  as  great  a  difference  in  ,he  course  of  policy  that 
each  desires  to  see  pursued — the  Northern  portion  ')i  the  Union  seeking 
for  protection  against  the  cheap  labor  system  of  Europe,  as  the  best  mode 
of  advancing  the  laborer,  and  the  Southern  portion  clinging  to  the  British 
free  trade  system  as  the  most  efiBcient  means  of  cheapening  labor,  and  en- 
slaving the  laborer.* 

The  men  who  own  laborers  are  few  in  number  when  compared  with  the 
number  of  Northern  men  who  own  themselves,  and  seek  to  sell  their  own 
labor ;  but,  as  is  the  case  in  all  aristocracies,  the  slave  ovvners  almost 
always  work  together,  while  the  free  people  are  divided  among  themselves. 
The  consequence  of  this  has  been  that  the  former  have,  generally,  as  the 
Charleston  Courier  boastingly  informs  its  readers,  "  obtained  the  mastery 
in  Congress,"  and  have  within  tho  last  twenty  years  "  so  changed  its 
policy  that  its  action  for  the  most  part,  and  with  only  a  few  exceptions, 
has  fostered  the  slaveholding  interest ; "  and  this  it  has  done  at  the  cost 
of  the  free  men  of  the  North,  who  desired  to  be  themselves  the  sellers  of 
their  own  labor,  or  its  products.  In  proof  that  such  has  been  the  fact,  we 
propose  now  to  review  the  votes  of  Congress  in  relation  to  the  question  of 
protection  or  non-protection  to  the  American  laborer. 

The  close  of  the  great  war  in  Europe  brought  with  it  intense  agricultural 
distress.  The  foreign  market  for  breadstufls  died  away,  and  simultane- 
ously therewith  the  domestic  market  that  had  been  made  by  our  manufac- 
turing establishments  was  closed.  The  manufacturers  themselves  were 
ruined.  The  people  of  the  South  had  then  no  doubts  of  the  constitutional- 
ity of  protection.    Anxious  to  secure  themselves  against  the  competition 

*  This  is, pure  demajioiiueism.  Tho  South  favor  free  trade  because  it  is  the  ititer- 
cst  n(  all  nKricuItiiral  couiitriea  every  wliero  to  buy  in  the  cheapest  iiinrket  anil  sell 
in  the  licarust.  Agricultural  countries  have  no  motive  in  huiltlinp  up  manufacturing 
districts  at  their  expense  ;  hence  tho  South  has  wisely  opposed  tarilfs.  J.  R. 


48o 


Appendix, 


of  the  people  of  India,  they  gladly  united  with  those  of  the  agricultural 
States  in  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  minimums  upon  cotton  and 
woollen  goods,  and  the  bill  for  that  purpose  passed  through  the  Senate 
with  but  a  single  dissenting  vote  from  south  of  Maryland.  When,  in  1818, 
it  was  proposed  to  prolong  the  duration  of  the  protection  thus  afforded, 
Baldwin  of  Pennsylvania,  Clay  of  Kentucky,  and  Lowndes  of  South  Caroli- 
na, were  found  voting  together  in  the  affirmative. 

The  period  that  followed  was  one  of  ruin  throughout  the  Middle  and 
Northern  States.  Flour  sold  in  Pittsburg  at  $1.25  per  barrel,  while  iron 
was  so  high  that  it  required  seventy,  if  not  even  eighty  barrels  of  flour  to 
pay  for  a  ton  of  bars.  From  day  to  day  the  farmers  came  more  and  more 
to  appreciate  the  truth  of  Franklin's  doctrines,  as  given  in  the  following 
extract  from  one  of  his  letters,  dated  in  1771 : 

"  Every  manufacturer  encouraged  in  our  country,  makes  part  of  a  market  for  pro- 
visions within  ourselves,  and  saves  so  iiiucli  money  to  tlio  country  as  must  other- 
wise be  exported  to  pay  for  the  manufactures  he  supplies.  Here  in  England  it  ifi 
well  known  and  understood  that,  wherever  a  manufacture  is  established  which  em- 
ploys a  number  of  hands,  it  raines  the  value  of  lands  in  the  neighboring  country  all 
around  it,"^  partly  by  the  greater  demand  near  at  hand  for  the  produce  of  the  land  ; 
and  partly  from  the  plenty  of  money  drawn  by  the  manufacturers  to  that  part  of  the 
country.  It  seems,  therefore,  the  interest  of  all  our  farmers  and  owners  of  lands,  to 
encourage  our  young  manufactures  in  preference  to  foreign  ones  imported  among  us 
from  distant  countries.'* 

From  day  to  day  it  became  better  understood  that  Jefferson  had  been  in 
the  right  when  he  declared  that  our  true  policy  was  to  "  place  the  manu- 
facturer by  the' side  of  the  agriculturist ;"  f  and  thus  it  came  that,  in  1824, 
a  new  effort  was  made  to  protect  the  producer  of  food  by  bringing  the  con- 
sumer to  his  neighborhood.  The  tariff  of  that  year  was  passed  by  the  fol- 
lowing vote : 

For.  Against. 

Free  Labor  States,   88  32 

Slave  Labor  States,  19  70 

107  102 
The  vote  against  it  from  the  Free  States  was,  to  a  great  extent,  from  the 
shipping  States  of  New  England,  while  of  the  Southern  vote  for  it  a  large 
portion  came  from  Kentucky,  always  the  most  Northern  in  feeling  of  the 
Slave  States.  Deducting  the  vote  of  the  States  immediately  adjoining 
Mason  and  Dixon's  Line  and  the  Ohio,  it  will  be  found  that  the  advocates 
of  cheap  labor  went  almost  solidly  against  protection. 
The  tariff  of  1828  followed,  and  here  the  vote  was  as  follows : 

For.  .Sgainat. 

Free  Labor  States   88  29 

Slave  Labor  States,  17  63 

105  94  ^ 

The  period  which  followed  the  passage  of  this  tariff  was  one  of  greater 

*  Exactly  ;  but  I  do  not  see  why  Massachusetts  should  bo  built  up  at  tJio  expense 
ofMicliigan,  Iowa,  and  Kansas. 

t  True ;  givo  eiimil  rights  to  all ;  onr  fanners  have  no  protection.  Why  sliimid  the 
manufacturers  have  superior  advantages  over  them  ?  J.  K- 


Appendix. 


481 


prosperity  tlian  this  country  had  then  ever  known.  The  revenue  was  so 
abundant  that  it  became  necessary  to  abolish  the  duties  upon  coffee,  tea, 
and  various  other  commodities  consumed  by  the  laborers  of  the  North ; 
and  yet,  notwithstanding  this  reduction,  the  public  debt  which,  at  the 
opening  of  1829  had  stood  at  nearly  sixty  millions,  was  finally  paid  off  in 


The  advocates  of  cheap  labor  had  been,  as  we  see,  almost  unanimous 
against  the  passage  of  this  act,  and  almost  equally  unanimous  did  they 
prove  in  denouncing  it  after  its  operation  had  commenced.  It  was  the 
tariff  of  "  abominations  "  for  them,  for  it  tended  to  improve  the  condition 
of  the  laborer,  and  they  desired  to  purchasie  bone,  muscle,  and  sinew  in 
the  form  of  laborers,  ^r.  McDuffie  undertook  to  prove,  by  his  "  forty  bale 
theory,"  that  the  South  paid  all  the  expenses  of  government,  and  he  and 
Mr.  Calhoun  finally  succeeded  in  persuading  the  people  of  South  Carolina 
that  protection  was  unconstitutional,  and  that  they  had  a  right  to  nullify 
and  set  at  defiance  the  law  by  virtue  of  which  the  revenue  was  then  col- 
lected ;  and  yet  Mr.  Calhoun  had  been,  himself,  one  of  the  strongest  advo- 
cates for  protecting  the  cotton  of  South  Carolina  in  our  markets  from  all 
interference  by  the  cotton  of  India. 

Then,  for  the  first  time  did  the  people  of  the  Union  commit  the  serious 
error  of  recognizing  the  right  of  the  minority  to  dictate  law  to  the  majority. 
South  Carolina,  the  State  that,  of  all  others,  recognizes  the  existence  of 
the  smallest  amount  of  rights  among  her  o^vn  free  white  men — the  State 
that  of  all  others  exhibits  in  its  worst  form  the  evils  of  an  aristocracy— 
dictated  to  the  Union  that  it  should  fall  back  from  the  ground  it  had  occu- 
pied, and  return  to  a  strictly  horizontal  tariff  of  twenty  per  cent.,  abandon- 
ing at  once  and  forever  all  idea  of  protecting  the  free  cultivators  of  the 
North  in  their  efforts  to  secure  to  themselves  a  home  market  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  their  labor  and  their  land.  The  compromise  tariff  of  1833  was 
passed,  and  thus  the  system  that  had  been  built  up  at  the  cost  of  so  much 
effort,  was  almost  at  once  prostrated.  Slave  labor  b?,d  carried  the  day 
against  free  labor.  The  men  who  wished  to  buy  laborers  cheaply  had 
achieved  a  victory  over  the  men  who  wished  to  sell  their  own  labor,  and  to 
sell  it  dearly. 

It  was  a  great  mistake,  and  the  consequences  soon  became  apparent. 
Mills  and  furnaces  were  no  longer  built.*  Importations  were  large,  and 
withiu  four  years  the  banks  throughout  the  Union  stopped  payment.  The 
ensuing  four  years  were  years  of  loss  and  ruin.  1  lie  power  to  purchase 
foreign  goods  declined,  and  the  revenue  fell  off  "so  {greatly  that  in  less  than 
nine  years  from  the  date  of  the  final  dischai^e  of  a  public  debt  upon 
which  we  had  been  paying  an  interest  of  three  per  cent.,  the  agents  of  the 
government  were  seen  knoc*king  at  the  doors  of  all  the  banking  houses  of 
London  and  Paris,  Hamburg  and  Amsterdam,  and  asking  for  a  loan  at  nx 
per  cent.,  and  asking  it  in  vain.  What  were  the  losses  of  the  people  in 
those  awful  days  we  need  scarcely  state,  for  they  are  yet  fresh  in  the  reool- 

*  At  the  expense  of  the  rural  districts;  good  J— that  is  one  praiseworthy  act  that 


1834. 


JrB, 


482 


Appendix. 


lection  of  most  of  our  readers.  Then,  for  the  first  time,  was  heard  in  the 
streets  of  our  cities. 

The  cry  of  sober,  industrious,  orderly  men :  "  Give  me  work !  only  give  me  work ; 

MAKE  YOVR  OWN  TERMS  —  MYSELF  AND  FAMILY  HAVE  NOTHING  TO  EAT  !  " 

Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  such  cases  then  occurred,  and  by 
those  who  can  now  recall  to  mind  the  state  of  aifairs  that  then  existed,  it 
will  not  be  deemed  extraordinary  that  we  should  state  our  belief  that  the 
cost  to  the  people  of  the  Free  States  of  one  such  year  as  1841-42,  was 
more  than  the  value  of  the  trade  with  the  Slave  States,  for  ■which  we  are 
dependent  on  the  Union,  in  half  a  century.  This  state  of  things  had 
brought  with  it,  however,  a  remedy  in  the  change  of  public  opinion  that 
had  been  produced.  Mr.  Van  Buren,  the  "  Northern  man  with  Southern 
principles  "  —  the  advocate  of  the  policy  which  looks  to  the  extension  of 
Slavery  —  had  been  defeated,  and  the  people  called  for  a  change  of  meas- 
ures. Then,  however,  for  the  first  time  was  the  slave-labor  policy  advocat- 
ed as  a  party  measure,  and  in  the  division  that  then  was  had  in  Congress, 
the  votes  of  both  North  and  South  were  less  unanimous  than  they  previ- 
ously had  been,  as  is  here  shown : 

For,  Against, 

Free  Labor  States,   83  49 

Slave  Labor  States   33  63 

116  m 

The  tarifif  of  1842  went  into  operation,  and  its  effect  was  almost  electric. 
Credit  was  reestablished  —  mills  and  furnaces  were  built,  and  the  people 
■were  once  more  enabled  to  purchase  and  pay  for  foreign  merchandise. 
Public  and  private  revenue  increased,  and  within  four  years  from  the  date 
of  this  triumph  of  the  sellers  of  labor  over  those  who  desired  to  buy  slave 
laborers,  the  prosperity  of  the  country  had  attained  a  higher  point  than 
had  ever  before  been  known. 

This,  however,  did  not  suit  the  advocates  of  the  slave-labor  policy.  Then, 
as  now,  they  desired  that  the  free  laborer  should  be  cheap,  and  a  crusade 
was  gotten  up  against  protection,  among  the  most  active  promoters  of 
which  were  the  people  of  Virginia,  whose  chief  manufacture  is  that  of  ne- 
groes for  exportation,  and  who  are  protected  in  this  department  of  trade  by 
an  absolute  prohibition  of  all  competition  from  abroad.  This  prohibition 
they  have  always  regarded  as  constitutional,  because  it  enables  them  to 
sell  Negroes  at  a  thousand  dollars  that  might  be  imported  from  the  coast  of 
Africa  for  a  hundred,  and  yet  they  deny  to  the  free  laborer  of  the  North  any 
right  to  protection  to  further  extent  than  can  be  obtained  by  aid  of  duties 
imposed  exclusively  with  a  view  to  the  raising  of  revenue.  To  carry  their 
views  into  effect,  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  extend  the  area  of  Slavery  by 
incorporating  Texas  within  the  Union — a  measure  that  was  carried  out 
by  aid  of  "Northern  men  with  Southern  principles,"  so  well  described  by 
the  Charleston  Mercury,  as  "  hucksters  in  politics,"  always  ready  to  sell 
themselves  and  their  constituents  'when  the  advocates  of  chjap  labor  are 
seen  to  need  assistance,    Texas  in  the  Union  furnished  two  senatorial 


Appendix. 


483 


votes,  and  by  aid  of  those  votes,  added  to  the  Senate  in  defiance  of  the 
Constitution,  the  tariff  of  '42  was  repealed,  and  that  of  '46  substituted  in 
its  place.  The  advocates  of  Slavery  were  thus  triumphant,  but  the  conse- 
quences to  the  free  laborer  of  the  North  were  speedily  seen  in  a  diminished 
demand  for  labor.  Mills  and  furnaces  were  every  where  closed,  and  their 
owners  were  ruined;  but  the  object  of  the  South,  the  cheapening  of  free 
labor,  was  thereby  accomplished. 

In  another  paper  we  shall  give  some  of  the  details  of  the  working  of  this 
Southern  system ;  but,  in  the  mean  time,  ■will  ask  our  readers  to  reflect 
upon  the  fact  that,  for  more  than  fifteen  out  of  the  last  twenty  years,  the 
jnen  who  buy  laborers  have  had  the  control  of  the  policy  of  the  government, 
to  the  entire  exclusion  of  the  men  who  wish  to  sell  their  ovm  labor. 
"  Southern  interests  "  have  had,  during  that  time,  as  the  Charleston  Patri- 
ot most  truly  observes,  "the  mastery  in  Congress,"  and  "  the  government, 
although  hostile  in  its  incipiency,  to  Slavery,  and  starting  into  political 
being  with  a  strong  bent  towards  Abolition,  yet  afterwards  "  —  that  is,  since 
1833  — "  so  changed  its  policy  that  its  action  has  fostered  the  slave-holding 
interest,  and  swelled  it,"  by  aid  of  war  or  purchase,  "from  six  to  fifteen 
States,  and  from  a  feeble  and  sparse  popijlation  to  one  of  ten  millions,." 

How  has  this  been  accomplished  ?  By  aid  of  taxes  paid  by  the  North  for 
the  purchase  of  land  in  the  South,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  fleets 
and  armies  required  for  the  protection  of  Southern  men  and  interests  con- 
nected with  the  occupation  of  the  lands  so  purchased.  The  people  of  the 
North  have  paid  at  least  one  dollar  per  head,  per  annum,  more  than  would 
have  been  required  had  they  stood  alone,  and  this  they  have  done  that 
Florida  might  be  purchased  and  cleared,  and  that  Texas  might  be  convert- 
ed from  free  Mexican  territory  into  one  or  more  Slave  States ;  and  they 
are  now  required  to  agree  to  the  payment  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  millions 
for  the  conversion  of  the  Mesilla  Valley  into  slave  territory,  and  for  the 
prevention  of  the  Africanization  of  Cuba.  The  more  land  they  buy  the 
greater  vnll  be  the  power  of  the  South,  and  yet  no  Northern  politician  dares 
propose  to  increase  the  power  of  the  free  laborers  of  the  North  by  the  ac- 
ceptance, in  free  gift,  of  Nova  Scotia,  New  Brunswick,  and  the  Canadas, 
with  their  two  and  a  half  millions  of  hard-working,  instructed,  and  econom- 
ical population.  The  South  may  but/  land  to  be  filled  with  slaves  whose 
votes,  through  their  masters,  shall  govern  the  North ;  but  the  latter  may 
not  accept  land  covered  with  men,  because  those  men  will  then  vote  for 
themselves. 

We  see,  then,  that  the  Union  is  maintained  at  the  cost  of  taxation  to  the 
North  twice  greater  than  would  be  required  for  the  North  alone.  It  is 
maintained  at  the  cost  of  relinquishing  all  right  to  self-government  in  this 
important  matter  of  protection  to  free  laborers.  What  is  its  value  has 
been  shown.  We  ask  our  readers  to  compare  the  forty  cents  per  head 
gained  by  the  Union  with  the  many  dollars  per  head  that  it  costs,  and  de- 
termine for  themselves  the  justice  of  the  assertion  of  the  South,  that  the 
continuance  of  the  connection  is  of  "such  inestimable  worth"  to  the 
North  that,  however  disagreeable  may  be  the  purchase  of  Cuba  or  the  repeal 


484 


Appendix. 


of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  the  bitter  pills  musi  yet  be  swallowed.  And 
let  them  also  determine  what  regard  is  to  be  paid  to,  and  what  terror  is  to 
be  felt  at,  the  menace  of  dissolution. 


The  vast  majority  of  the  people  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  has 
always  believed  with  Franklin,  Washington,  and  Jefferson,  that  protection 
tended  to  increase  the  value  of  labor  and  land,  and  to  enrich  both  laborer 
and  land  owner.  Whether  right  or  wrong  in  this,  the  votes  of  their  repre- 
sentatives have,  on  all  occasions,  proved  that  the  belief  existed ;  and  it  does, 
certainly,  exist  to  so  great  an  extent  that  were  a  vote  to  be  now  taken  on 
the  question  whether  protection  should  be  maintained  or  abandoned,  apart 
from  all  other  issues,  an  overwhelming  majority  would  be  found  favorable 
to  its  maintenance.  Such  being  their  belief,  it  would  seem  to  be  right  and 
proper  that  they  should  be  enabled  to  act  in  accordance  with  it ;  and  yet, 
although  almost  thrice  as  numerous  as  the  whites  of  the  Slave  States,  they 
have  rarely  been  allowed  to  exercise  the  slightest  influence  upon  the  action 
of  government  in  reference  to  this  most  important  subject.  AVhy  they  have 
been  so  is,  that  in  the  Slave  States  every  white  person  votes  for  his  prop- 
erty  as  well  as  for  himself;  while  in  the  Free  ones  men  vote  for  themselves 
alone.  In  the  House  of  Representatives,  five  millions  of  Southern  whites 
counterbalance  seven  millions  of  Northern  ones,  and  in  the  Senate,  the 
taxes  paid  by  the  North  for  the  purchase  and  protection  of  Louisiana, 
Florida,  Arkansas,  Texas,  and  Missouri,  are  represented  by  ten  senatorial 
votes,  and  thus  it  is  that  Southern  property  and  Northern  contributions 
for  its  purchase  are  made  to  work  for  the  enslavement  of  Northern  men. 

At  the  date  of  the  passage  of  the  tariff  of  1828,  Southern  men  like  Madi- 
son and  Jackson  were  still  of  the  belief  that  protection  was  in  a  high  de- 
gree advantageous  to  the  country.  The  latter  had  then  but  recently  given 
to  the  world,  in  the  letter  to  Dr.  Coleman,  his  opinion  that  the  country  had 
been  "  too  long  dependent  on  British  merchants,"  and  that  all  that  was 
required  for  assuring  its  independence  was,  that  we  should  adopt  a  policy 
tending  to  enable  a  few  hundred  thousand  more  persons  to  become  con- 
sumers of  agricultural  products,  thereby  diminishing  to  the  same  extent 
the  number  dependent  exclusively  upon  agriculture  for  subsistence.  No 
one,  however  bigoted  an  advocate  of  British  free  trade,  can,  as  we  think, 
now  read  that  letter  without  being  strongly  impressed  with  the  correctnes  3 
of  the  views  of  its  distinguished  author.  Southern  as  he  was.*  Neither 
can  any  one  compare  the  condition  of  the  country  in  1833  with  that  whici 
had  existed  but  half  a  dozen  years  before,  without  arriving  at  the  conclu- 
sion that  a  continuance  of  what  was  then  deemed  the  democratic  policy 
would  long  before  this  time  have  placed  the  cotton,  woollen,  and  iron 

*  Jackson  was  a  good  general  and  an  able  President,  bnt  his  opinions  on  political 
economy  were  entitled  to  no  respect.  No  one  knows  this  fact  better  than  the  writer 
of  this  article.  It  is  unwortliy  of  a  serious  argument  to  introduce  the  clap-trap  of  a 
great  name  when  it  does  not  represent  a  great  authority  on  the  subject  under  dis. 


THE  SOUTH  AND  NORTHERN  INTERESTS. 


cussion. 


J.B. 


Appendix. 


485 


manufactures  in  a  condition  no  longer  to  need  protection.  The  democracy 
of  that  time  had,  however,  never  heard  of  the  idea  that  the  existence  of  a 
servile  class,  whose  members  were  liable  to  be  bought  and  sold,  was  essen- 
tial to  the  maintenance  of  republican  government.*  It  has  been  since  dis- 
covered by  those  South  Carolina  philosophers,  at  whose  command  the  tariff 
of  1828  was  repealed.  That  change  was  followed  by  speculation  and  bank- 
ruptcy, and  by  ruin  to  an  extent  rarely  exceeded  in  any  country — the  con- 
sequence of  Southern  policy.  Once  again,  in  1842,  did  the  Northern  policy 
of  protection  to  the  free  laborer  prevail,  but  years  were  then  required  to 
repair  the  damage  that  had  been  produced,  and  during  those  years  the  free 
cultivators  had  to  suffer  from  the  loss  resulting  from  large  supplies  of  food 
and  wool,  small  markets,  and  consequent  low  prices  of  all  they  had  to  sell. 
Furnaces  and  mills  were  built,  but  time  was  required  to  build  them,  and 
when  built,  years  were  necessary  for  giving  to  those  who  worked  in  them 
the  instruction  needed  for  the  advantageous  performance  of  their  duties. 
The  skilled  laborers  of  1833  had  been  dispersed  by  Southern  policy,  and 
thus  had  been  sacrificed  an  amount  of  Northern  capital  ten  times  greater 
than  could  be  replaced  in  a  similar  time  by  the  profits  of  Southern  trade. 
We  beg  our  readers  to  look  back  and  compare  for  themselves  the  high  posi- 
tion occupied  in  1833  with  the  degraded  one  in  which  the  country  stood  in 
1842,  and  then  to  determine  if  the  losses  of  that  period  were  not  greater 
than  would  be  compensated  by  even  half  a  century  of  connection  with  a 
people  who,  being  buyers  of  laborers,  believe  in  the  advantage  resulting 
from  the  enslavement  of  the  laborer. 

In  the  five  years  that  followed  the  passage  of  tHfe  act  of  1842,  the  pro- 
duction of  iron  grew,  as  was  stated  by  Mr.  Walker,  to  more  than  800,000 
tons,  or  nearly  four  times  the  quantity  produced  in  1842.  The  consump- 
tion of  cotton  grew  from  200,000  bales  to  half  a  million,  and  manufactures 
of  all  other  kinds  grew  with  vast  rapidity.  A  demand  was  thus  made  for 
labor  to  be  applied  to  the  building  of  mills  and  furnaces,  the  opening  of 
mines,  the  construction  of  machinery,  and  to  the  making  of  cloth,  iron, 
and  other  commodities,  far  exceeding  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars  a  year; 
and  the  necessary  result  of  this  was,  that  there  was  no  longer  heard,  as  in 
1841-42,  the  cry  of  "  Give  me  work  1  Only  give  me  work !  Make  your 
ovm  terms,  my  wife  and  family  have  nothing  to  eat."  On  the  contrary, 
the  demand  for  labor  of  every  kind,  skilled  and  unskilled,  increased  so 
much  more  rapidly  than  the  supply  that  wages  rose  greatly,  and  with  every 
step  in  this  progress,  there  was  an  enlarged  power  on  the  part  of  each 
member  of  this  army  of  laborers  to  purchase  the  fruits  of  the  farm,  to  the 
great  advantage  of  the  farmer.  Never  was  a  resuscitation  so  rapid  and  so 
complete ;  and  it  was  a  direct  consequence  of  the  exercise  by  the  free 
people  of  the  Union,  of  the  right  of  the  majority  to  direct  the  policy  of 
the  country.  Free  labor  had  this  time  triumphed  over  Slave  labor  and  its 
owners ;  but  this  did  not  suit  the  gentlemen  who  are  now  so  anxious  to  in- 
sure the  stability  and  permanence  of  Slavery  by  giving  a  hundred  millions 

•  What  has  that  idea  to  do  with  the  argument  ?  J.  E. 


486 


Appendix. 


of  dollars  for  the  purchase  of  Cuba,  or  making  war  to  acquire  it  at  still 
heavier  cost. 

The  then  existing  policy  tended  to  strengthen  the  free  laborers,  and 
therefore  was  it  seen  that  it  must  be  broken  down;  but  this  object  could 
not  be  accomplished  without  an  enlargement  of  the  Slave  territory.  Texas 
must  be  brought  into  the  Union,  as  she  would  give  two  more  Senators, 
representing  a  State  in  which  men  were  held  as  property.  That  done,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  found  little  difficulty  in  furnishing  abundant  ar- 
guments favorable  to  the  Slave-labor  policy.  Addressing  himself  to  the 
farmers,  he  assured  them  that  their  revenues  were  largely  decreased  by  the 
enormous  advance  on  manufactured  goods  consequent  upon  protection ;  * 
hut  when  he  spoke  of  the  public  revenue,  he  assured  them  that  prices  were 
falling,  and  there  was  danger  that  importations  would  fall  off,  and  that  a 
direct  tax  might  be  required  for  the  maintenance  of  the  government.  It 
was  the  fable  of  the  wolf  and  tjie  lamb  over  again.  The  Free-labor  policy 
was  to  be  reversed,  and  if  one  reason  would  not  answer,  another  could  be 
made  that  would.  The  advocates  of  Slavery  had  obtained  power  by  aid  of 
two  votes  dragged  into  the  Senate  in  defiance  of  the  Constitution,  and  for 
the  purpose  of  depriving  the  people  of  the  North  of  all  control  over  their 
own  actions  in  reference  to  the  important  question  whether  laborers  should 
be  Slaves  or  Freemen. 

Four  years  later  the  production  of  iron  had  fallen  below  half  a  million 
of  tons,  when  it  should  have  reached  twelve  hundred  thousand,  if  not  a 
million  and  a  half,  and  the  domestic  consumption  of  cotton  had  fallen  off 
a  hundred  and  fifty  yiousand  bales,  when  it  should  have  increased  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand,  and  would  have  so  increased  but  for  the  deter- 
mination of  the  slave  power  to  direct  the  whole  movement  of  the  govern- 
ment. Before  this  day,  the  production  of  iron  would  have  reached  two 
millions  of  tons,  and  the  consumption  of  cotton  a  million  of  bales,  while 
the  woollen  and  other  manufactures  would  have  attained  a  corresponding 
development,  and  we  should  now  be  independent  of  all  the  world  for  hun- 
dreds, if  not  thousands,  of  the  commodities  for  which  we  have  been  giving 
bonds  to  the  amount  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars,  until  our  credit 
has  been  so  far  affected  that  thej  can  now  with  difficulty  be  sold,  and  only 
8t  prices  so  low  as  to  secure  the  payment  of  enormous  interest,. 

What,  however,  it  will  be  asked,  should  we  be  doing  with  all  this  enor- 
mous mass  of  iron,  cloth,  and  other  commodities  ?  In  answer,  we  say  that 
we  should  be  consuming  it.  Had  the  manufacture  of  iron  been  permitted 
to  grow  as  it  was  growing  in  1846,  the  farmers  and  planters  of  the  country 
would  now  be  supplied  at  fifty  dollars  a  ton  instead  of  having  to  pay 
seventy  or  eighty,  and  they  would  be  making  two  miles  of  railroad  where 
now  they  are  making  one,  and  buying  two  dollars'  worth  of  agricultural 
machinery  for  every  one  they  now  can  purchase.  Increased  facilities  for 
going  to  market,  and  the  presence  of  markets  among  the  mines,  furnaces, 
and  factories  that  would  now  be  found  among  all  the  States  from  Maine  to 

*  There  is  no  doubt  about  tbat ;  else  why  have  protection  at  all  ?    J.  R. 


Appendix. 


487 


Texas,  would  be  rendering  their  labor  twice  more  valuable,  and  enabling 
them  to  purchaoe  twice  the  cloth  they  now  can  buy.*  When  men  produce 
largely  and  exchange  readily,  they  can  consume  largely.  The  only  diffi- 
culty now  in  the  way  of  doubling  the  consumption  of  manufactures,  is  the 
fact  that  more  than  half  of  the  products  of  agricultural  labor  are  eaten  up 
in  transportation  to  the  place  at  which  they  are  to  be  exchanged  for  iron 
and  cloth.  Were  the  mines  of  Missouri  and  Illinois,  Ohio  and  Pennsyl- 
vania now  in  full  operation,  the  farmers  of  those  States  would  be  produ- 
cing far  more  than  at  this  time  they  do  produce,  and  obtaining  twice  as 
much  iron  and  twice  as  much  cloth  for  every  bushel  of  grain  they  had  to 
Rell. 

Of  these  mighty  benefits,  and  of  the  increased  powei^  freedom,  and 
popular  progress  that  would  have  resulted  from  them,  the  North  has  been 
deprived  by  the  domination  of  Slave  owners  in  our  national  councils. 
And  now  the  Freemen  of  these  States  are  called  on  to  join  in  extending 
that  domination,  and  giving  it  such  power  that  it  can  never  be  removed. 
Will  they  lend  themselves  to  the  base  and  unholy  schemes  of  those  who 
•would  fain  reduce  all  laborers  to  the  weakness,  ignorance,  and  stagnation 
of  bondage  ? 

PROTECTION  AND  SOUTHERN  INTERESTS. 
We  are  told,  however,  that  protection  is  adverse  to  the  interests  of  the 
men  whose  property  consists  of  men,  women,  and  children,  and  who  raise 
cotton.  In  answer,  we  say  that  the  real  interests  of  the  South  are  as  much 
promoted  by  protection  as  are  those  of  the  North,  and  that  nothing  but  its 
absurd  jealousy,  .and  its  determination  to  grasp  at  power,  prevent  its  peo- 
ple from  seeing  that  such  is  the  faci.  It  is  protection  that  has  caused  the 
domestic  consumption  of  cotton  to  attain  its  present  large  amount,  the 
consequence  of  which  is,  that  the  quantity  required  to  be  forced  on  the 
market  of  England  has  been  so  far  lessened,  and  the  price  so  far  sustained. 
Were  we  now  consuming  a  million  of  bales,  as  we  should  be  doing  had  the 
tarilF  of  1842  been  maintained,  the  quantity  going  to  that  market  would 
be  less  by  three  or  four  hundred  thousand  bales  than  it  is,  and  we  should 
not  now  be  called  to  record  a  daily  decline  of  price,  notwithstanding  a 
diminution  in  the  amount  of  crop.  Protection  has  largely  increased  the 
market  for  cotton  in  France,  Belgium,  Germany,  Russia,  and  Spain,  while 
in  the  unprotected  countries  there  has  been  no  increase.  The  direct  ten- 
dency of  the  Free-labor  policy  is  to  increase  the  market  for  cotton  by  in- 
creasing the  number  of  its  purchasers,  and  to  reduce  the  price  of  cotton 
gooilo  by  increasing  the  number  of  persons  who  have  cloth  to  sell.  Every 
farmer  knows  well  that  the  greater  the  competition  among  the  millers  the 
higher  is  the  price  of  wheat,  and  the  less  the  charge  for  converting  it  into 
flour.  The  object  of  protection  is  to  increase  the  number  of  persons  who 
require  to  purchase  food  and  wool,  and  to  sell  iron  and  cloth.f 

*  Bold  assertionn,  but  as  false  as  bold  ;  the  contrary  would  have  beon  the  result, 
t  Then  it  is  altopother  superfluous,  for  tlio  Lord  attended  to  that  matter  long  ago. 
Marriage  fulfils  that  object  better  than  "  protection."  J.  E. 


488 


Appendix. 


Twenty  years  since,  Germany  exported  almost  all  her  wool,  and  imported 
nearly  all  the  cloth  and  the  iron  she  consumed.  Now  she  converts  her 
food  and  her  wool  into  cloth,  and  the  laborers  who  eat  food  and  wear 
cloth  convert  her  fuel  and  her  ores  into  iron ;  the  consequence  of  which 
is,  that  her  own  people  are  so  cheaply  supplied  that  they  compete  with 
England  for  the  supply  of  foreign  markets.  That  country  has,  fortunately 
for  it,  no  slave  power— -no  men  who  buy  and  sell  laborers  —  and  all  feel 
that  it  is  for  their  interest  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  laborer.*  Through- 
out Germany,  there  is  a  constant  tendency  towards  an  extension  of  the 
area  of  Freedom ;  whereas  here,  as  the  Charleston  News  informs  us,  the 
great  question  is,  whether  the  area  of  Slavery  shall  or  shall  not  be  ex- 
tended. In  protected  Austria,  serfdom  has  lately  been  abolished ;  whereas 
our  whole  energies  are  at  this  moment  directed  towards  preventing  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  Slaves  of  Cuba.  Protected  Russia  has  just 
diminished  by  one  third  the  labor  required  to  be  given  to  the  owner  of 
land  ;  whereas  we  are  anxious  to  enlarge  the  area  of  Slavery  by  reintro- 
ducing it  in  the  island  of  Hayti,  as  the  means  required  for  establishing,  in 
its  most  perfect  form,  a  republican  government.  Freedom  grows  in  those 
countries"  in  which  the  farmers  are  protected  in  their  efforts  to  draw  the 
mechanic  to  their  sides,  and  it  grows  nowhere  else  ;  t  and  therefore  it  is 
that  British  free-trade  is  advocated  by  the  men  who  purchase  bone,  muscle, 
and  sinew,  in  the  form  of  laborers,  and  hold  in  such  disesteem  the  free- 
men of  the  North,  who  sell  their  own  labor. 

It  is  rr.id,  however,  that  the  South  is  taxed  for  the  maintenance  of  these 
"  hireling  laborers  "  of  the  North.  We,  on  the  contrary,  maintain  that  it 
is  to  the  skill  and  industry  of  the  North  that  the  South  is  indebted  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  price  of  cotton,  and  that,  were  they  left  to  themselves, 
they  would  not  obtain  one  half  the  price  at  which  it  now  is  sold.  Further, 
we  maintain  that  it  is  greatly  to  Northern  ingenuity  they  are  indebted  for 
the  reduction  in  the  price  of  cloth ;  and  that,  were  they  left  to  themselves, 
they  would  pay  more  for  clothing  their  property,  while  obtaining  less  for 
their  products.  It  is  the  North  that  stands  between  them  and  ruin.  In 
protecting  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  great  domestic  market, 
the  farmers  of  the  Middle  and  Northern  States  make  no  war  against  natu- 
ral obstacles.  Their  water-powers  are  as  good  as  those  of  Europe,  and  the 
coal  and  iron  ore,  by  which  they  are  every  where  surrounded,  are  as  acces- 
sible as  are  those  of  England ;  and  the  only  difficulty  they  have  to  over- 
come is  that  of  the  time  required  for  the  perfect  establishment  of  a  manu- 
facture, by  the  proper  education  of  those  required  to  be  engaged  in  it. 
Skill  in  the  production  of  iron  or  of  cloth  is  not  obtained  in  a  day,  but,  when 
obtained,  it  is  never  lost,  except  where  mills  and  furnaces  are  every  where 
closed,  as  was  the  case,  to  so  great  an  extent,  under  Southern  policy,  in 
1836-40,  and  1848-^2.  In  both  these  cases,  the  work-people  who  had  ac- 
quired skill  were  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven,  and  in  both  the 
work  of  instruction  has  required  to  be  recommenced ;  and  so  will  it  ever 

*  Fudpo :  but  it  has  a  mill  power — just  as  we  have. 

t  VVIiat  about  England,  then,  wliich  is  freer  tlian  any  of  those  countries  ?  J.  R. 


Appendix. 


489 


be  while  the  South  shall  continue  to  exercise  its  present  control  over  all 
the  operations  of  the  government. 

The  farmers  of  the  North  know  well  that  the  nearer  the  market  the 
greater  is  the  value  of  their  labor  and  their  land  ;  but  whenever  they  un- 
dertake to  govern  themselves,  and  endeavor  to  bring  the  market  to  their 
doors,  they  are  met  with  a  demand  to  pay  for  more  Slave  territory,  to  be 
used  in  depriving  them  of  all  power  to  act  in  accordance  with  their  own 
views  of  their  true  interests.  They  are  asked  now  to  yield  up  Nebraska  on 
one  side,  and  purchase  Cuba  on  the  other,  and  for  what  purpose  ?  To 
rivet  their  chains  by  making  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  more  Slave  votes  in  the 
Senate,  that  shall  refuse  them  protection  against  a  difficulty  that  tends 
steadily  to  diminish,  while  the  advocates  of  Slavery  take  for  themselves 
protection  against  a  natural  obstacle  that  time  can  never  either  diminish 
or  destroy.  Cuba  and  Brazil  have  advantages  for  the  growth  of  sugar 
that  are  entirely  wanting  in  Louisiana  and  Texas,  the  States  purchased  by 
the  government  for  the  extension  of  the  area  of  Slavery.  In  the  one,  the 
cane  is  required  to  be  planted  but  once  in  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  and  the 
planter  makes  his  crop  at  any  time  that  suits  him  ;  whereas  in  the  others 
it  has  to  be  planted  annually,  and  must  be  cut  before  the  frost;  and  yet 
the  planter  is  well  content  with  the  protection  against  nature  that  he  now 
enjoys,  while  denying  the  propriety  of  any  protection  to  the  Nothern  la- 
borer, who  wars  not  against  nature,  but  only  against  those  difficulties  that 
time  must  unquestionably  remove.  The  people  of  the  North  pay  fourteen 
millions  annually  for  the  same  quantity  of  sugar  that  they  could  have  from 
Cuba  and  Brazil  for  ten ;  and  this  is  really  a  tax  upon  them,  for  they  enjoy 
no  advantages  resulting  from  it,  whereas  the  people  of  the  South  profit  by 
Northern  protection,  in  obtaining  more  for  their  cotton  and  paying  less 
than  they  would  otherwise  do  for  their  cloth  and  their  iron.*  In  a  Northern 
Union  there  would  be  no  duty  on  sugar,  and  the  gain  to  the  people  of  the 
North  from  the  abolition  of  this  interference  with  the  trade  with  Cuba, 
Brazil,  Hayti,  Liberia,  and  other  sugar-producing  countries,  and  the  oon- 
sequent  extension  of  trade  with  them,  would,  as  we  believe,  be  fully  equal 
to  all  the  profits  now  resulting  to  the  trade  for  which  the  North  is  indebted 
to  the  Union.  ^ 

That,  however,  is  but  a  small  portion  of  the  tax  paid  by  the  Free  people 
of  the  North  for  the  maintenance  and  extension  of  Slaverj',  and  it  is  but  a 
email  part  of  the  cost  from  which  they  would  be  relieved  by  that  secession 
which,  according  to  the  Charleston  Mercury,  would  constitute  "  the  real 
triumph  of  the  South."  Once  restored  to  the  exercise  of  the  rifjht  to 
govern  themselves,  their  vast  treasures  of  fuel,  and  of  copper,  lead,  zinc, 
iron,  and  other  ores  would  be  developed,  and  the  men  employed  in  the 
work  would  then  furnish  a  permanent  market  for  food  thrice  greater  titan 
that  furnished  by  all  the  manufacturing  countries  in  Europe.  Mark  Lane 
would  then  cease  to  fix  the  prices  of  our  farmers,  while  Wales  and  Staf- 

*  That  shows  the  nature  of  protection  —  it  protects  not  labor  but  capital ;  not  the 
millions  of  consumers  but  the  hundreds  of  producers.  In  other  words  it  builds  up 


an  aristocracy. 


J.B. 


Appendix. 


fordshire  would  cease  to  fix  the  price  of  iron,  and  we  should  cease  to  issue 
bonds  for  twenty-five  millions  a  year  to  pay  for  iron  to  be  laid  over  the 
great  coal  and  ore  regions  o^  the  West.  The  products  of  the  farm  would 
then  increase  in  both  quantity  and  price,  while  cloth  and  iron  would  be  far 
cheaper  than  they  are  now.  Labor  would  then  be  more  productive  of  all 
the  commodities  required  by  the  laborer,  who  would  then  enjoy  advan- 
tages to  which  he  now  can  make  no  claim,  because  the  whole  policy  of 
the  country  is,  and  long  has  been,  controlled  by  men  who  wish  to  purchase 
labor,  and  desire  that  bone,  muscle,  and  sinew  may  be  cheaply  sold. 

Let  our  readers  now  estimate  for  themselves  the  annual  loss  to  which 
our  farmers  are  subjected  by  reason  of  the  distance  of  the  markets  to 
which  they  are  forced  to  carry  their  products,  because  of  the  difficulty, 
under  Southern  policy,  of  bringing  into  activity  the  coal,  the  various  ores, 
and  the  vast  water  powers  of  the  Union,  and  see  if  it  will  be  covered  by 
ten,  or  even  twenty  dollars  a  head.  To  this  let  them  add  the  annual  loss 
from  taxation  for  extending  the  area  of  Slavery  by  the  purchase  of  terri- 
tory, for  the  projected  purchase  of  the  Mcsilla  Valley  and  Cuba,  for  the 
maintenance  of  fleets  and  armies  required  by  these  new  possessions,  and 
the  further  loss  from  the  fact  that  the  construction  of  harbors  and  the  im- 
provement of  rivers  are,  by  the  advocates  of  Slavery,  deemed  to  be  uncon- 
stitutional—  and  let  them  then  determine  if  the  estimate  that  has  been 
submitted  to  them  of  the  cost  of  the  Union  is  not  below  the  truth. 

NORTH  AND  SOUTH. 

We  beg  our  readers,  now,  to  compare  with  us  the  relative  position  of 
Northern  and  Southern  States  and  cities.  Sixty  years  since,  "Virginia 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  Union,  with  ten  representatives  in  Congress,  while 
New  York  had  only  six.  Where  stand  they  now  ?  New  York  has  thirty- 
three  and  Virginia  thirteen.  Sixty  years  since.  South  Carolina  had  five 
representatives,  while  Ohio  had  scarcely  a  white  inhabitant.  Now,  the 
former  has  still  her  old  number  of  five,  while  the  latter  has  twenty-one. 
In  that  time,  Massachusetts  has  grown  from  eight  to  eleven ;  Pennsyl- 
vani  -  from  eight  to  twenty -five,  and  even  little  New  Jersey,  which  then  had 
only  four,  now  balances  the  State  which  furnishes  the  great  aristocracy  of 
the  land  in  its  Finckneys,  Rulledgcs,  Chcveses,  and  Gadsdens.  At  that 
time.  New  York,  Norfolk,  and  Charleston,  might  fairly  have  disputed  the 
chances  of  commercial  greatness  that  bung  upon  the  future ;  but  where 
stand  they  now  ?  At  the  last  census,  Charleston  had  42,806  inhabitants, 
having  increased  in  ten  years  precisely  1,669.  Norfolk  had  14,320,  or 
3,400  more  than  she  had  in  1840,  while  New  York  and  Brooklyn  had  risen 
to  more  than  600,000. 

We  are  told,  however,  that  this  is  all  due  to  the  action  of  the  Federal 
Government ;  that  "  the  immense  commercial  resources  of  the  South  are 
amongst  the  most  startling  and  certain  resources  in  all  emergencies ; " 
that  "  if  there  was  no  tariff  of  any  kind,  and  absolute  free  trade,  the 
Southern  seaports  would  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  surpass  the  Northern 


Appendix. 


491 


ones  not  only  in  imports  and  exports,  but  also  in  population  and  the  arts," 
—  and  that  the  way  to  bring  about  this  reign  of  free-trade  and  prosperity 
is  to  tax  all  merchandise  imported  from  Northern  ports,  or  in  Northern 
ships,  while  admitting  free  all  those  imported  from  Europe,  or  in  Southern 
vessels.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem  to  our  readers,  such  is  the  mode  we 
find  advocated  in  the  Richmond  Enquirer  as  the  one  required  for  the  es- 
tablishment of  perfect  free-trade. 

If,  however,  the  prosperity  of  New  York,  Massachusetts,  or  Pennsyl- 
vania, which  are  manufacturing  States,  has  really  been  due  to  the  tariff, 
and  if  protection  is  injurious  to  agricultural  communities,  how,  we  would 
ask,  can  we  account  for  the  growth  of  Indiana  and  Illinois,  which  are  not 
manufacturing  States  ?  Agreeably  to  the  Slavery  theory,*  they  should 
suffer  equally  with  South  Carolina  and  Virginia,  and  yet  we  find  them 
growing  to  almost  a  million  each  of  population ;  while  Arkansas,  almost 
as  old,  has  less  than  200,000.  Their  railroads  count  by  thousands  of  miles, 
while  Arkansas  has  yet,  we  believe,  the  first  mile  of  road  yet  to  make. 
Southern  men  can  scarcely  charge  the  new  State  of  Wisconsin  with  pro- 
tection, and  yet  she  bids  fair  to  have  a  thousand  miles  of  railroad  before 
Texas  shall  have  completed  the  first  hundred  miles  of  her  first  road. 
Telegraphs  abound  through  the  West  and  North-western  States,  and  Ohio 
presents  a  perfect  network  of  them ;  while  Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and 
Georgia  present  to  view  little  more  than  a  single  line,  and  that  maintained 
almost  exclusively  by  the  transmission  of  intelligence  across  them  from 
Northern  cities  to  New  Orleans.  Look  where  we  may,  we  find  the  same 
result ;  throughout  the  North  there  is  the  activity  of  Freedom  and  life, 
while  throughout  the  South  there  is  the  palsy  of  Slavery  and  death. 

The  prosperity  of  the  North-west  is,  however,  as  we  are  told,  also  due  to 
the  partiality  of  the  Federal  Government,  the  almost  exclusive  manage- 
ment of  which  has  been  so  generally  in  Southern  hands.  What  Massa- 
chusetts and  this  State  gain  from  the  tariff  is  made  up  to  the  newer  States 
by  donations  out  of-  the  common  treasury  of  lands.  On  this  head  we 
quote  from  the  Richmond  MTiig : 

"  Illinois  is  indebted  for  tliese  two  tltoiisand  miles  of  railroad  to  the  bounty  of  the 
Federal  Government,  a  bounty  .  idulped  at  tlie  expense  of  the  Southern  States, 
whose  feebleness  and  decay  are  sneered  at.  Every  foot  of  these  ronds  has  been 
m.ide  by  appropriations  of  public  Ip.nds.  Not  a  cent  has  come  out  of  the  pockets  of 
the  peo|)le.  And  railroads  are  not  tlie  only  favors  bestowed  upon  the  Iiircling 
States,  luimense  contributions  have  been  made  to  them  all,  for  schools  and  col- 
lejies.  We  dare  say,  if  the  same  liberal  measure  had  been  dealt  out  to  tiie  Slave- 
holding  States ;  if  their  territory  had  been  permeated  by  canals  and  railroads,  and 
schools  established  in  every  neighborhood,  at  the  expense  of  the  Northern  States, 
we,  too,  mifrht  Iioast  of  our  prosperity.  It  would  not  be  going  too  far  to  say,  that 
Illinois  herself,  if,  in  addition  to  the  millions  she  has  received  from  the  Federal  Treas- 
ury, had  had  tlie  benefit  of  Slave  labor,  might  have  been  still  more  prosperous." 

In  reply  to  this,  a  contemporary  furnishes  the  following  abstract  of  a 
report  from  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  made  a  few  weeks  since, 
showing  the  donations  of  land  to  six  Western  Free  States,  and  six  Slave 
States,  to  which  we  beg  the  attention  of  our  readers  : 


*  Which,  be  it  noted,  is  not  the  free-trade  theory. 


J.  R. 


492 


Appendix. 


JUich,,  Iowa,         La,,  Mc, 


O.,  la.,  Jll.,      JUq.,  Jlla.,  Mi, 


fyUcoiisin.  Florida, 


Acres.  Acres. 


School  Lands  

Universities  

Seats  of  Government    .  . 

Balines  

Internal  Improvement  .  . 

Roads  

Canals  and  Rivera    .  .  . 

Railroads  

Swamp  Lands  

Individuals  and  Companies 
Military  Services  .... 


60,981  17,839 
20,167,763  5,716,974 


4,996,873  400,000 
3,595,053  5,788,093 
11,265  333  24,533,020 


5,273,749  5,520,504 
253,360  207,366 


28,560  22,300 

261,045  161,230 

1,569,449  2,600j000 

251,a55  .   .  . 


46,723,391  45,167,325 


The  appropriations  here  appear  to  be  equal,  but  when  we  come  to  deduct 
the  lands  selected  by  individuals  tvho  had  their  choice  to  go  into  Southern 
or  Korthern  States,  we  find  the  Southern  grants  for  public  purposes  to  bo 
forty  millions  against  twenty-five  millions  of  Northern  ones.  Men  do  not 
to  any  extent  go  voluntarily  into  the  Slave  States,  but  vast  numbers  leave 
those  States  to  settle  in  the  Free  ones,  as  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  the  late 
census  exhibits  more  than  600,000  people  from  the  former  settled  in  the 
latter,  while  the  latter  exhibit  but  208,000  persons  from  the  former ;  and 
if  we  deduct  from  them  the  number  settled  in  the  three  States  nearest  the 
Free  ones,  Delaware,  Maryland,  and  Missouri,  which  tnxist  belong  to  a 
Northern  Union  whenever  formed,  we  shall  find  but  123,000  remaining,  or 
about  one  to  five. 

Freedom  is  attractive  and  Slavery  is  repulsive.  Men  of  aictivity  and  in- 
telligence seek  the  Free  States,  leaving  the  old  Slave  States  to  the  occupa- 
tion of  men  whose  dreams  are  of  the  long-passed  days,  when  Virginia 
was  "  the  Ancient  Dominion,"  and  consoling  themselves  for  present  insig- 
nificance by  paragraphs  of  which  the  following,  taken  from  the  Richmond 
Examiner,  is  a  specimen : 

"  Virginia,  in  this  eoi^federacy,  is  the  impersonation  of  the  well-born,  well-educated,  tnelU 
bred  arintocrai.  She  looks  down  from  her  elevated  pedestal  upon  her  pameuu,  igno- 
rant, mendacious  Yankee  vilifiers  as  coldly  and  calmly  as  a  marlilo  statue.  OccH- 
sioually,  in  Congress,  or  in  the  nominating  conventions  of  the  Democratic  party, 
slie  condesL:nds,  when  her  interests  demand  it,  to  recognize  the  existence  of  her 
adversaries  at  the  very  moment  when  she  cruslies  them,  but  she  does  it  without 
aiiRer,  and  with  no  more  liatred  of  them  than  a  gardener  feels  towards  the  insects 
which  lie  finds  it  necessary  occasionally  to  destroy." 

The  aristocracy  does  not  work.  The  democracy  does ;  and  hence  it  is 
that  the  six  Free  and  six  Slave  States,  having  received  from  the  Treasury, 
for  all  purposes,  an  equal  quantity  of  land,  presented  to  \-iew,  at  the  date 
of  the  last  census,  the  following  comparison  between  the  railroads  com- 
pleted and  in  progress : 

««  The  hirelinp  States"  The  aristocratic  States 


of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illi- 
noit),  [owa,  Michigan, 
Wisconsin, 


of  Missouri,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  liouisiana, 
Arkansas,  Florida. 


Completed.    In  progress, 
2,913  4,953 


Completed.    In  prwjrcis. 
417  2,318 


Appendix. 


493 


A  similar  comparison,  now  made  out,  would  present  results  still  more 
striking,  but  even  this  should  be  sufficient  to  satisfy  our  readers ;  first,  of 
the  insignificance  of  the  trade  offered  by  the  South  to  the  North  as  the  price 
of  Union,  and  second,  that  the  enormous  difference  existing  is  not  dur  to 
any  action  of  the  Federal  Government,  in  the  management  of  which  the 
North  has  so  uniformly  been  denied  the  slightest  control. 

We  are  told,  however,  that  the  North  must  cling  to  the  South  if  it  would 
•not  return  to  "  the  original  poverty  and  weakness  "  that  must  follow  a  dis- 
solution of  the  Union.  Let  us  look  at  this  proposition.  At  the  North, 
f  very  body  works.  At  the  South,  the  property  only  works.  Freemen  there 
think  work  disgraceful,  and  do  little  of  it.  At  the  North,  there  is  a  desire 
to  increase  the  value  of  labor  and  to  free  the  laborer.  At  the  South,  there 
is  a  universal  desire  to  extend  the  area  of  Slavery,  and  to  keep  the  laborer 
in  a  state  of  Slavery,  even  when  he  has  "  blue  eyes  and  bro^vn  hair,  and 
might  readily  pass  for  white."  At  the  North,  protection  tends  to  diversify 
the  employment  of  labor,  to  increase  the  demand  for  it,  and  to  increase  its 
reward,  while  public  opinion  tends  towards  the  gratuitous  distribution  of 
public  land  among  the  actual  settlers  of  it,  and  the  establishment  of  a 
squatter  sovereignty.  At  the  South,  the  B.ichmond  Enquirer,  the  organ  of 
the  Virginia  aristocracy  above  described,  tells  its  readers  that  it  has  "  little 
hope  of  the  defeat  of  the  [Homestead]  bill.  The  conservatism  of  the 
Senate,"  as  it  continues, 

"  Will  hardly  reject  so  plausible  an  appeal  to  popular  passion.  King  Caucus  is 
nn  longer  monarch  ;  the  more  soft,  subtle,  and  persuasive  Prince  of  Oeniagoguism 
now  reigns  supreme  in  the  province  of  politics.  It  is  barely  possible  that  the  meas- 
ure may  be  arrested  by  executive  veto." 

Northern"  poliry  is  attractive  of  immigration,  because  it  looks  thus  to  the 
elevation  of  the  laborer.  Immigration  is  always  largest  when  mills  and 
furnaces  are  being  built,  and  when  there  is  the  greatest  demand  for  labor, 
and  it  always  declines  as  mills  are  closed  and  furnaces  are  permitted  to  go 
out  of  blast.*  Under  the  tariff  of  1828,  immigration  trebled,  and  by  1834  it 
had  reached  65,000 ;  after  which  it  remained  nearly  stationary  until  the 
tariff  of  1842  came  fully  into  operation,  when  it  commenced  to  increase 
with  such  rapidity,  that  in  1847,  it  had  already  almost  reached  a  quarter  of 
a  million,  the  point  it  would  have  touched  ten  years  sooner,  had  the  people 
of  the  North  been  permitted  to  direct  the  operations  of  the  government,  in 
accordance  with  the  views  of  Franklin,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
and  Jackson ;  and  long  before  the  present  time  it  would  have  reached  a 
million. 

To  this,  however,  "  the  impersonation  of  the  well-bom,  well-educated, 
and  well-bred  aristocrat "  is  opposed.  It  dislikes  "squatter  sovereignty," 
and  holds  in  great  contempt  the  people  of  "  the  hireling  States,"  who  sell 
their  own  labor,  while  looking  with  great  complacency  upon  the  operations 
of  its  own  people  engaged  in  feeding  corn  to  men,  women,  and  children,  to 
be  sold  in  Louisiana  and  Texas,  there  to  swell  "  the  immense  commercial 

*  The  causes  of  the  increase  of  cmigriition  are  very  numerous,  not  one  only  ;  and 
the  chief  inciteiucut  to  it  is  cheap  laud,  not  furnaces  in  blast.  J.  It. 


42 


494 


Appendix. 


resources  of  the  South,"  which  constitute,  as  we  are  assured  in  the  En- 
quirer, "  the  basis  of  the  commerce  of  the  Universe."  It  would,  therefore, 
if  it  could,  put  a  stop  to  the  voluntary  immigration  of  free  men,  while  it 
would  gladly  reopen  the  African  slave-trade,  now  regarded  at  the  South  as 
the  real  measure  of  civilization. 

North  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  of  the  Ohio,  and  of  36°  30',  we  have 
land  sufGcient  for  hundreds  of  millions  of  inhabitants.  We  need  popula- 
tion, and  the  surest  way  to  bring  it  is  to  afford  to  the  people  of  Europe 
reason  for  believing  that  by  coming  here  they  will  be  enabled  to  earn  higher 
wages  thali  they  can  obtain  at  home,  and  enjoy,  in  greater  perfection,  the 
advantages  of  freedom.  Every  person  that  comes  here  is  worth  to  the  com- 
munity  all  he  cost  to  raise,  and  the  average  cost  of  the  men,  women,  and 
children  we  import,  is  certainly  not  less  than  a  thousand  dollars.  Were 
these  people  black,  and  did  they  come  from  Africa  to  Southern  ports,  they 
would  be  property,  and  the  community  would  be  regarded  as  being  richer 
by  at  least  five  hundred  dollars  a  head,  because  of  their  importation.  If  so 
there,  why  not  so  here  ?  To  the  community  it  matters  not  who  is  the 
owner  of  property,  provided  it  exists  and  is  owned  among  themselves. 
The  negro  is  the  property  of  another,  but  the  free  immigrant  is  his  own 
property,  and  hence  more  valuable  than  the  negro,  and  every  such  person 
constitutes  an  addition  to  the  wealth  of  the  community  of  at  least  a 
thousand  dollars.  Northern  policy,  even  as  it  is  now  carried  out,  attracts 
nearly  400,000  such  persons  annually,  few  or  none  of  whom  would  come 
Imder  an  entire  Southern  policy,  and  to  this  vast  immigration  is  to  a  great 
extent  due  the  fact  that  in  a  single  Western  State,  Illinois,  the  increase  in 
the  value  of  property  in  the  year  1853,  over  that  of  1852,  was  fifty-eight 
millions  of  dollars,  or  more  than  five  times  as  much  as  the  annual  value  of 
that  portion  of  our  trade  with  the  South,  that  is  dependent  on  its  refraining 
from  executing  its  threat  of  dissolution. 

Had  the  Northern  policy  been  fully  carried  out,  we  should  now  be  import- 
ing people  at  double  our  present  rate,  and  every  man  so  imported  would  be 
adding  to  the  value  of, Southern  products,  by  consuming  thrice,  and  per- 
haps five  times,  as  much  cotton  and  sugar  as  he  consumed  at  home.  At 
the  same  time  they  would  be  adding  to  the  value  of  Northern  land  and  labor 
to  the  extent  of  at  least  the  rum  we  have  named,  or  an  amount  of  four 
hundred  millions  of  dollars,  being  more  than  twenty  dollars  per  head  of  the 
present  population  of  the  States  we  have  assigned  to  a  Northern  Union. 
Adding  this  quantity  to  those  already  obtained,  we  feel  disposed  to  place 
the  loss  of  the  North,  from  the  continuance  of  the  Union,  at  about  forty 
dollars  per  head;  while  the  gain  therefrom  does  not  exceed  forty  cents  — 
the  difference,  or  $39.60  per  head,  being,  as  we  think,  the  net  annual  loss 
to  the  Northern  States. 

THE  CASE  AS  IT  STANDS. 

We  have  now  in  those  States  more  than  seventeen  millions  of  people,  and 
if  we  add  thereto  the  population  of  the  British  provinces,  the  sum  will  be 
nearly  twenty  millions.   Annexation  of  those  provinces  can  never  take 


Appendix. 


495 


place  while  we  shall  continue  so  busily  occupied  in  extending  the  area  of 

Slavery,  to  which  the  people  of  Canada  are  so  much  opposed.   They  tell 

us,  frankly,  that  they  will  make  no  connection  with  us, 

"  That  will  empower  the  slave-driver  to  make  Canada  a  himting  ground.  Hu- 
man flosli  and  bloud  shall  never  be  bartered  in  Canada  like  the  beasts  of  the  Held. 
The  bayin?  of  the  bloodhounds  shall  never  echo  through  our  woods,  tf  Mitchell 
wnnt^  '  a  plantation  of  fat  negroes  to  flog,'  ho  will  have  to  seek  it  in  some  other 
place  than  Canada.  If  Canada  ever  becomes  a  .State  of  the  Union,  it  will  not  bo 
until  its  soil  is  soaked  with  blood." —  Toronto  Colonist, 

With  a  Northern  Union,  this  difficulty  could  have  no  existence,  and  the 
advantages  of  Union  are  to  the  Provinces  so  great  that,  were  it  removed, 
annexation  would  follow  as  a  necessary  consequence. 

What,  then,  would  be  the  real  loss  resulting  from  a  secession  by  the 
South,  with  a  view  to  carry  out  the  now  favorite  project  of  a  great  Slave  Re- 
public, embracing  some  of  the  Slave  States,  Cuba,  Brazil,  and  probably  Hayti, 
whose  people  would  be  reGnslaved  ?  *  We  should  lose  the  companionship 
of  "five  millions  of  white  men  who  give  seven  millions  of  votes,  and  thereby 
deprive  the  whole  free  people  of  the  North  of  all  control  over  their  ovra 
actions,  while  taxing  them  hundreds  of  millions  for  the  purchase  and  pro- 
tection of  territory  sufficient  to  enable  themselves  to  hold  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment. We  should,  on  the  other  hand,  gain  a  connection  with  twp  and 
a  half  millions  of  free  people  who  sell  their  own  labor,  and  therefore  desire 
that  "the  hireling"  should  be  largely  paid.  We  should  lose  a  connection 
with  five  millions  who  differ  from  us  in  all  our  modes  of  thought  in  regard 
to  the  rights  of  man,  and  gain  a  connection  with  half  that  number  who 
agree  with  us  in  reference  to  that  important  subject.  AVe  should  lose  a 
connection  with  men  who  look  only  to  exhausting  their  land  and  then 
abandoning  it,  and  gain  one  in  which  every  man  is  cultivating  his  own 
homestead,  and,  therefore,  desirous  of  improving  it  for  the  benefit  of  him- 
self, his  wife,  and  his  children,  and  ready  to  unite  with  us  in  every  measure 
tending  to  that  restilt.  W e  should  lose  a  connection  with  a  dead  body,  and 
gain  one  with  a  living  man. 

Further  than  this,  a  Northern  Union,  pursuing  a  policy  tending  to  elevate 
the  laborer,  by  diversifying  and  increasing  the  demand  for  labor,  would  at- 
tract twice  the  number  of  immigrants  we  how  receive,  and  would  thus  add 
so  enormously  to  our  numbers  and  our  wealth,  that  we  hesitate  not  to  ex- 
press our  full  belief  that  such  a  Union  would,  in  twenty  years  from  this 
date,  be  richer  and  more  populous  than  will  be  our  present  Union  if  it  con- 
tinued for  that  time.  Stronger  it  would  certainly  be,  for  Slavery  is  an  ele- 
ment of  weakness.  More  respectable  it  would  certainly  bo,  for  we  cannot 
command  the  respect  of  the  world  while  appearing  every  where  as  the  advo- 
cates of  Slavery,  and  the  executors  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law.t   More  moral 

*  Reenslave  the  Haytiens  !  All  the  forces  of  the  South,  and  all  the  legions  of  hell 
combined,  could  not  reenslave  the  Haytiens.  It  would  bo  equally  easy  to  enslave 
the  Yankees. 

t  Such  a  Union  would  hasten  the  advent  of  Bepublicanism  in  Europe  one  half  a 
century  at  least.  Reformers  of  the  Old  World  could  then  point  to  a  truly  free  Re- 
public' JVuio  they  dare  not  speak  in  praise  of  a  country  which  carries  the  slavo- 
holdec'a  lash  in  its  tight  hand,  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  its  left. 


496 


Appendix. 


would  it  be,  for  we  do  not  covet  our  neighbor's  lands,  nor  would  we  make 
of  himself  a  chattel.  Examine  the  matter,  therefore,  as  we  may,  the 
balance  of  profit  and  loss  seems  to  us  to  be  in  favor  of  permitting  our 
Southern  friends  to  exercise  their  own  judgments  as  to  the  time,  manner, 
and  extent  of  secession.  The  case,  as  it  now  stands,  is  thus  stated  by  the 
Charleston  Evening  News  :• 

"  It  ia  vain  to  disguise  it,  the  great  issue  of  our  day  in  this  country  is,  Slavery  or 
no  Slavery.  The  present  phase  of  that  issue  is,  the  extension  or  non-extension  of 
tlie  institution,  the  foundations  of  which  are  broad  and  solid  in  our  midst.  What- 
ever the  general  measure — wliatever  the  political  combinations  —  whatever  tlie 
party  movement  —  whatever  tite  action  of  sections  at  Washington,  the  one  single, 
dominant,  and  pervading  idea,  solving  all  leading  questions,  insinuating  itself  into 
every  polity,  drawing  the  horoscopes  of  all  aspirants,  serving  as  a  lever  or  fulcrum 
for  every  interest,  class,  and  individuality  —  a  sort  of  directing  fatality,  is  that 
master  issue.  As,  in  despite  of  right  and  reason  —  of  organism  and  men — of  inter- 
ests and  efforts.  It  has  become  per  se  political  destiny  —  why  not  meet  it  ?  It  con- 
trols  the  North,  it  controls  the  South  —  it  precludes  escape.  It  is  at  last  and  simply 
a  question  between  the  South  and  the  remainder  of  the  Union,  as  sections  and  aapenj/.e. 
All  efforts  to  give  it  other  divisions,  to  solve  it  by  considerations  other  than  those  which 
pertain  to  them  in  their  local  character  and  fates,  to  divert  it,  to  confound  it  with  ob- 
jects and  designs  of  a  general  nature,  is  rendered  futile.  It  has  to  be  determined  by 
these  real  parties,  by  their  action  in  their  cliaracter  as  sections  —  inchoate  cnuntrics." 

Such  are  the  parties  to  this  great  question  of  the  enlargement  or  con- 
traction of  the  Freedom  of  man  —  "  sections  —  inchoate  countries."  How 
soon  they  will  become  really  different  countries  —  enemies  in  war,  and  in 
peace  friends  —  depends  upon  the  South,  which  has  for  thirty  years  threat- 
ened secession,  and  has  thus  far  been  conciliated  only  by  the  exercise  of 
almost  unlimited  power  to  buy  land  and  create  poor  Slave  States,  with  small 
population,  as  offsets  to  large,  populous,  and  wealthy  Free  States  at  the 
North.  The  cup  of  conciliation  has,  however,  been  drained,  and,  if  the 
Missouri  Compromise  be  now  repealed,  even  the  dregs  will  scarcely,  we 
think,  be  found  at  its  bottom.  That  the  monstrous  Nebraska  Bill  can  be- 
come a  law,  we  do  not  believe,  nor  can  we  believe  that  Southern  gentlemen 
will  generally  be  found  advocating  such  an  extraordinary  violation  of  faith ; 
but  should  we  err  in  this,  and  should  the  failure  of  this  new  attempt  at  the 
enlargement  of  slave  territory  and  extension  of  slave  power  be  followed  by 
a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  South  to  insist  on  their  right  of  seces- 
sion, why  the  only  answer  to  be  made  will  be  in  the  words  of  Senator  Fes- 
senden,  "  They  need  not  put  it  off  a  day  on  our  account." 

VIRGINIA. 

For  thirty  years,  the  South  has  threatened  to  dissolve  the  Union,  unless 
permitted  to  control  its  commercial  policy,  to  tax  the  Northern  people  for 
the  purchase  of  land  and  the  maintenance  of  fleets  and  armies  required 
for  its  own  use,  and  to  manufacture  States  like  Florida  and  Arkansas,  to  be 
used  as  a  set-off  against  the  rapidly-growing  States  of  the  North-west ;  and 
now  we  are  threatened  with  dissolution  unless  we  yield  up  Kansas  and 
Nebraska,  on  one  hand,  and  pay  a  hundred  millions  for  Cuba  on  the  other. 
What  is  the  profit  and  what  the  loss  likely  to  result  to  the  North  from  the 
practical  enforcement  by  the  South  of  its  right  to  secession,  we  have  here- 


Appendix. 


497 


tofore  endeavored  fairly  to  place  before  our  readers,  and  if  the  balance  has 
been  largely  against  the  Union,  the  fault  lies  in  the  facts  themselves,  and 
certainly  not  in  us.  There  is,  however,  as  we  are  told  by  the  Richmond 
Enquirer,  "  another  and  n\ost  important  relation  in  which  we  must  con- 
template the  dreadful  contingency  of  disunion ; "  and  that  is,  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  it  would  affect  the  social  condition  of  the  North  and  the 
South.  The  statesmen  of  the  former,  as  the  Enquirer  informs  its  r';aders, 
"have  never  displayed  any  high  order  of  administrative  talent;"  and  it 
greatly  fears  that,  deprived  of  the  aid  of  the  latter,  the  North  must  fall 
into  anarchy,  and  fail  entirely  in  every  effort  at  self-government  that  may 
be  made.  "Conservatism  is,"  as  we  are  assured,  "the  controlling  element 
in  the  social  system  of  the  South,"  and  to  such  an  extent  that 

"  Tlioro  is  not  now  and  there  has  never  boon  a  community  in  which  the  principles 
of  self  governmeiit  were  so  abiimlnntly  developed  as  in  the  Southern  States  of  this 
confederacy.  The  necessary  o(!ect  of  tlio  institution  of  Slavery  is  to  impart  a 
dignity,  a  sobriety,  and  a  self-possession  to  the  character  of  the  dominant  race. 
Tauc;lit  from  childhood  to  govern  himself  and  to  rule  others,  the  slaveholder  he;:ins 
life  with  all  the  qualities  essential  to  the  character  t.f  a-safe  and  etliciunt  member  of 
society." 

Unfortunately,  however,  Mr.  Jeflerson,  himself  not  only  a  Virgiftian,but 
also  a  slaveholder,  tells  \is  just  the  reverse  of  all  this,  in  the  following  pas- 
sage from  his  Notes  on  Virginia  : 

"  The  whole  commerce  between  master  and  slave  is  a  perpetual  exercise  of  the 
most  boisterous  passions,  the  most  unremitting  despotism  on  the  one  part,  and  de- 
grading submission  on  the  other.  Our  chiMron  see  this,  and  learn  to  imitate  it  — 
for  man  is  an  imitative  animal ;  this  quality  ii?  the  germ  of  all  education  in  him; 
from  hiscradle  to  his  grave,  he  is  learning  to  do  what  he  sees  others  do.  If  a  parent 
could  find  no  motive,  either  in  his  philanthropy  or  his  self-love,  for  restraining  the 
intomperanre  of  passion  towards  his  slave,  it  should  always  be  a  sutiicicnt  one  that 
his  child  is  present.  But  generally  it  is  not  sufficiunt.  Tiie  parent  storms,  the  child 
looks  on,  catches  the  lineaments  of  wrath,  puts  on  the  same  airs  in  the  circle  of 
smaller  slaves,  gives  loose  to  his  worst  passions,  and  thus  nursed,  educated,  and 
daily  exercised  in  tyranny,  cannot  but  bo  stamped  with  its  odious  peculiarities. 
The  man  must  be  a  prodigy  who  can  retain  his  manners  and  morals  undepraved 
under  such  circumstances." 

Which  of  these  authorities  is  entitled  to  he  believed  our  readers  will  de- 
termine for  themselves.  On  the  one  side  they  have  a  Virginian  of  1776,  a 
lover  of  the  Union,  and  one  who  held  that  God  had  created  all  men  free 
and  equal ;  and  on  the  other  a  Virginian  of  1854,  an  active  member  of  the 
Pro-Slavery  Party,  that  has  for  the  last  thirty  years  governed  the  Union  by 
means  of  threats  that,  if  interfered  with,  they  would  certainly  secede,  and 
thus  bring  about  what  the  Enquirer  is  now  pleased  to  stj-le  "the  dreadful 
contingency  of  disunion."  On  the  one  side  th"y  have  the  representative 
of  that  Virginia  which  gave  to  the  Union  its  Washington,  its  Henry,  its 
Jeflerson,  and  its  Madison,  and  on  the  other  the  representative  of  the  State 
which  has  placed  in  its  Governor's  chair  Virginians  like  Extra  Billy  Smith 
—  which  gives  John  Tyler  to  the  Union,  and  aids  in  placing  Franklin 
Pierce  in  the  Chief  Magistracy  to  the  exclusion  of  such  a  Virginian  as  the 
gallant  Scott.  Between  the  two,  there  is  no  great  doubt  which  is  to  be 
respected. 

Released  from  the  control  of  their  "conservative  "  friends —  or  masters 
—of  the  South,  who  tax  them  for  the  extension  of  the  area  of  Slavery,  and 

42* 


498 


Appendix. 


then  vote  for  themselves  and  their  property  —  and  left  to  tax  themselves  at 
their  own  pleasure  for  the  improvement  of  rivers  and  harbors,  and  the  in- 
crease in  the  value  of  their  land,  "  what  security  is  there,"  aslts  the  anxiotis 
Enquirer, 

"  That  the  non-slaveholding  States  would  continue  to  cohere  in  one  politicnl  and 
social  system  ?  The  all-pervading  anil  controlling  element  of  Slavery  would  give 
unity  and  consistency  to  the  social  and  political  system  of  the  South,  But  the 
Northern  States  would  be  bound  together  by  no  such  principle  of  union,  and  in  the 
absence  of  the  necessary  centralizing  tendency,  diverse  and  antagonist  interests 
would  Guaiier  them  asunder,  and,  perchance,  drive  them  into  linstile  conflict.  At 
any  rate,  the  Southern  States,  moving  under  the  impulse  of  one  will,  and  pursuing 
a  single  policy,  would  find  it  no  difficult  task  to  play  off  the  Northern  States  one 
agr.inst  the  other,  and  thus  acquire  complete  control  over  their  destinies.  It  is  ob- 
vi  .lus  to  the  reflecting  mind,  that  if  the  Northern  States  were  cut  loose  from  the 
So'Uh,  they  would  be  broken  up  into  as  many  petty  communities,  or  would  else  be 
ove^'wlielmed  in  social  anarchy.  The  latter  alternative  would,  perhaps,  be  their 
luore  probable  fate." 

In  r^ply  to  this,  we  can  assure  our  readers,  North  and  South,  that  in  the 
event  of  dis  solution,  the  North  would  most  certainly  continue  to  have  the 
aid  of  "  conservative  "  Virginia,  and  of  "the  dignity,  propriety,  and  self- 
possession"  which  are  there,  as  the  EMjMjVer- assures  us,  so  "  characteristic 
of  the  dominant  race."  That  State  is  bound  to  go  with  the  North  and  not 
with  the  South,  and,  therefore,  our  anxious  friends  may  be  quite  relieved 
of  apprehension  in  regard  to  the  "  social  anarchy,"  that  would  result  from 
dissolution.  Of  all  the  States  of  the  Union  Virginia  is  the  one  that  is  most 
dependent  upon  the  protection  afforded  hy  the  North  through  the  interven- 
tion of  the  Federal  Government  —  and  yet  it  is  the  most  determined  against 
permitting  interference  with  what  it  calls  freedom  of  trade.  It  has  but  one 
branch  of  manufacture  fairly  established  within  its  limits,  and  that  is  of 
negroes  for  exportation,  in  which  it  is  protected  hy  an  absolute  prohibition 
of  foreign  competition,  by  aid  of  which  it  sells  a  negro  for  a  thousand  dol- 
lars, while  similar  ones  could  be  imported  from  the  coast  of  Africa  at  less 
than  one-fifth  that  price.  To  what  extent  that  export  is  carried  on  will  be 
shown  by  the  following  figures :  In  1830,  the  number  of  negroes  in  the  State 
was  469,000,  and  these,  according  to  the  usual  rate  of  increase,  should,  by 
1£40,  have  become  600,000,  whereas  they  Avere  only  449,000,  and  the  export 
in  that  period  must  therefore  have  been  about  150,000.  From  1840  to  1850, 
the  increase  was  24,000,  whereas  it  should  have  been  about  120,000,  and 
this  would  give  an  export  of  about  100,000.  Taking  the  average  of  the 
twenty  years,  we  obtain  an  annual  export  of  about  12,000,  and  as  they  are 
generally  fed  at  home  until  full  grown,  we  may,  we  think,  safely  put  them 
at  not  less  than  ^00  each,  giving  a  total  product  of  nearly  ten  millions  of 
dollars  for  commodities  that  would  not,  under  absolute  free  trade,  sell  for 
more  than  two  millions,  if  even  for  that  amount. 

This  is  to  "  the  Ancient  Dominion  "  an  important  branch  of  trade,  and 
its  existence  and  prosperity  are  due  to  the  Union  with  the  North.*  It  is 
■with  the  excess  of  eight  millions  that  she  pays  for  the  iron  that  should  be 
manufactured  at  home,  and  for  the  cloth  that  should  be  bought  with  the 


*  Were  you  ever  asked,  reader,  What  has  the  North  to  do  with  Slavery  ?  Read 
our  responsibility  and  condemnation  in  that  sentence.  J.  K. 


Appendix.  499 

iron.  "With  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  this  excess,  however,  would  cease 
to  exist,  for  among  the  first  measures  of  a  Southern  Confederacy  would  be 
the  reopening  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  the  benefit  of  the  planters  of 
Alabama  and  Mississippi,  long  since  tired  of  paying  Virginia  a  thousand 
dollars  for  a  negro  that  under  "  absolute  free  trade  "  could  be  bought  in 
Africa  for  thirty  or  forty  dollars,  and  transported  across  the  ocean  for  as 
many  more.  "What  then  would  be  the  condition  of  Virginia,  as  a  member 
of  a  Southern  Confederacy  ?  Her  land  is  already  to  so  great  an  extent 
exhausted  by  constant  cropping,  and  constant  export  of  all  its  products, 
that  her  own  people  are  flying  from  it,  and  it  is  only  by  aid  of  Northern, 
men  and  Northern  labor,  that  it  is  here  and  there  acquiring  value.  Once 
separated  from  the  North,  Northern  men  would  cease  to  seek  her  soil,  and 
the  aversion  of  foreigners  to  the  Slave  States  is,  as  we  know,  greater  than 
is  that  even  of  our  own  people.  We  have  at  this  moment  before  us  the 
destinations  of  the  passengers  of  the  ship  Universe,  which  arrived  at  this 
port  a  short  time  since,  and  they  afford  on  this  point  such  conclusive  evi- 
dence, that  we  are  induced  to  lay  them  before  our  readers,  as  follows  : 


TO  "  THE  HIRELING  STATES." 


Maine  1 

Massachusetts   39 

Vermont   5 

Rliode  Island  17 

Connecticut  25 

New  Jersey   41 

Pennsylvania  7G 

(Jliio  61 

Indiana  3 

Illinois  5G 

Iowa  10 

California  1 


TO  "THE  AEISTOCRATIC  STATES." 


Maryland   8 

ttistrict  of  Columbia   1 

Kentucky   1 

Missouri   2 

Virfiinia    2 

Soutli  Carolina   1 

Georgia   1 

Louisiana   1 

Total,   17 


Total,  331 

Virginia  obtains  two  and  Pennsylvania  no  less  than  76  !  Why  is  this  ? 
Because  the  former  obtains  its  iron  by  the  indirect  process  of  manufactur- 
ing its  com  into  negroes,  and  the  other  by  the  direct  process  of  feeding  its 
corn  to  men  who  mine  ore  and  coal  and  convert  them  into  iron.  Missouri, 
with  all  her  natural  advantages,  obtains  two,  and  her  neighbor,  Illinois, 
fifty-six,  because  Missouri  still  permits  men,  women,  and  children  to  be 
bought  and  sold,  and  Illinois  does  not. 

As  a  member  of  a  Southern  Union,  Virginia  could  no  longer  claim  the 
aid  of  any  sort  of  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  her  negroes  would,  of  course, 
have  the  strongest  inducements  to  fly  to  the  North.  Her  whites  would, 
therefore,  seek  to  fly  with  their  property  to  the  South,  where  they  would  be 
met  by  cargoes  of  newly  imported  Africans,  and  the  consequence  would  be 
a  depreciation  of  price  to  an  extent  far  exceeding  any  thing  ever  knowTi  in 
the  history  of  commerce.  As  a  member  of  a  Southern  Confederacy,  Vir- 
ginia would  be  abandoned,  her  people  would  be  ruined,  and  her  towns  and 
cities  would  pass  out  of  existence.  Within  a  Northern  Union,  on  the  con- 
trary, she  might  flourish,  for  she  would  be  then  employing  her  labor  in  de- 
veloping her  great  mineral  wealth,  and  thus  adding  to  the  value  of  both 


500 


Appendix. 


labor  and  land.  Then  would  be  realized  the  earnest  wisn  of  Washington, 
expressed  in  his  letter  to  La  Fa)'ette,  in  the  following  words,  referring  to 
the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  of  the  latter  in  Cayenne : 

"  Would  to  God  a  like  spirit  mifjbt  diffuse  itself  generally  into  the  minds  of  the 
people  of  this  countiy.  But  I  despair  of  seeing  it.  .  .  ."  To  set  tlio  slaves  tiiloat 
at  once  would,  I  really  believe,  bo  productive  of  much  miscliiof  and  inconveniL-nce ; 
but  by  decrees  it  might,  and  asBuredly  ought  to  bo  ofiucted  ;  and  that,  too,  by  legis- 
lative autliority." 

The  people  of  the  North  would  then  gladly  coOperi^,te  with  Virginia  in 
her  efforts  at  gradually  freeing  herself  from  the  evils  of  Slavery,  and  men 
of  intelligence  and  energy  would  then  seek  the  State  instead  of  flying  from 
it,  as  is  now  the  case.  Her  exhausted  lands  would  then  again  be  brought 
into  cultivation,  and  then  would  Norfolk  become  a  commercial  city,  which 
now  it  is  not,  nor  can  it  ever  be  while  the  extension  of  the  area  of  Slavery 
shall  contmue  to  be  regarded  as  the  true  policy  of  the  State.  Her  people 
would  then  be  educated,  and  The  Richmond  Whig  would  cease  to  report 
such  melancholy  facts  as  are  given  in  the  following  passage  taken  from  its 
columns : 

"  The  census  of  1810  reported  58,732  as  tlio  number  of  whites  over  20  years  of  age 
who  were  unable  to  read,  witlia  white  population  of  779,;i00.  The  late  census  of  18S0 
shows  the  number  to  bo  80,000  oat  of  a  population  of  897,531.  So  tliat,  with  an  in- 
crease of  only  118,234  whites,  we  have  21,208  who  are  unable  to  read  more  tlian  the 
last  census  indicated." 

Well  may  the  writer  speak  of  this  as  presenting  facts  "  humiliating  to 
our  pride,"  and  well  may  he  dwell  on  the  "  deep  mortification  "  which,  as 
a  Virginian,  he  feels,  in  reflecting  that  if,  in  addition  to  those  who  cannot 
read  at  all,  there  be  added  those  "  who,  although  they  read  a  little,  yet  do 
it  so  imperfectly  as  to  be  but  little  if  at  all  benefited  by  it,  the  number  will 
be  augmented  to  more  than  100,000,"  or  one  fourth  of  the  ichole  white  pop- 
ulation  over  twenty  years  of  age.  As  Americans  we  are  grieved  to  reflect 
that  such  a  state  of  things  should  exist  in  any  State  of  the  Union,  and  can 
readily  imagine  how  great  must  be  the  grief  of  a  Virginian  who  studies 
the  fact  that  great  as  is  now  the  proportion  of  the  absolutely  ignorant,  it  is 
likely  at  the  next  census  to  be  yet  far  greater.  But  in  the  event  of  the 
menaced  dissolution,  with  Virginia  a  Northern  State,  all  would  bo  difler- 
ent.  Her  coal  and  her  iron  ore  would  then  be  wrought,  her  water  powers 
would  be  put  to  work,  her  land  would  become  productive,  her  roads  would 
improve  until  she  might  almost  stand  side  by  side  with  the  young  Indiana, 
with  her  1,300  miles  of  railroad  in  operation,  her  1,'592  miles  in  course  of 
construction,  and  her  732  miles  projected  and  in  part  surveyed  —  and  then 
her  schools  would  increase  in  number  and  improve  in  quality,  and  her 
people  would  not  only  read  but  write. 

The  difference  to  Virginia  between  adhesion  to  the  North  or  the  South, 
is  the  difference  between  absolute  ruin  on  one  hand  and  high  prosperity 
on  the  other.  Such  being  the  case,  we  cannot  but  hope  that  our  friends 
of  The  Enquirer  will  feel  themselves  relieved  from  all  apprehension  of  the 
occurrence  of  anarchy  in  the  North  as  a  consequence  of  the  want  of  that 
portion  of  the  conservative  element  which  is  now  furnished  by  the  State 


Appendix. 


501 


they  represent.  Their  fears  are  groundless.  The  State  that  gave  to  the 
nation  Washington,  Jefferson,  and  Madison,  is  not  to  be  separated  from 
those  which  furnished  Otis,  Adams,  Greene,  Hamilton,  and  Franklin. 
They  are  destined  to  stand  or  fall  together ;  a  trtith  of  which  we  hope  our 
Southern  friends  will  now  be  convinced.  What  States,  then,  will  consti- 
tute a  Southern  Union,  if  Virginia  remain  with  the  North  ?  Kentucky 
will  not  be  in  it,  for  she  is  a  noble  and  gallant  State,  whose  feelings  have 
always  accorded  far  more  with  the  North  than  with  the  South.  Several  of 
the  reasons  that,  as  we  have  shown,  would  influence  Virginia,  would  be 
equally  operative  with  her ;  and  we  are,  therefore,  entirely  confident  that 
whenever  the  "  dreadful  contingency  of  disunion  "  shall  occtir,  the  land  of 
Henry  Clay  will  be  found  standing  side  by  side  with  those  States  with 
which,  under  his  lead,  it  so  long  acted,  "Which,  then,  will  be  the  frontier 
Slave  State  ?  North  Carolina  ?  Tennessee  ?  Neither  the  one  ncv  the 
other.  Both  will  keep  company  with  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and  a  Souih- 
ern  Union  can  embrace  no  State  north  of  South  Carolina  and  Alabama. 
Such  a  Union  would  be  utterly  powerless,  and  well  do  many  of  the  loudest 
advocates  of  secession  know  that  such  is  the  fact.  We  need  not,  there- 
fore, apprehend  that  the  South  will  speedily  rush  into  the  alternative  that 
she  is  so  fond  of  threatening  at  every  intimation  that  she  is  not  to  have 
her  own  way  in  the  government.  The  South  plainly  cannot  afford  to  dis- 
solve the  Union.  That  the  North  can  we  have  already  demonstrated ;  and 
ifwe  have  succeeded  in  establishing  in  the  public  mind  thi,  conviction  of 
these  two  facts,  we  have  done  an  important  thing  towards  disarming  the 
slaveholders  of  their  favorite  weapon  of  legislation,  whenever  they  have 
some  repulsive  or  outrageous  measure  to  force  upon  the  Free  States.  When 
the  North  shall  scorn  the  threats  of  disunion  from  the  South,  and  calmly 
allow  the  secessionists  to  go  the  whole  length  of  their  tether,  these  chronic 
threats  of  dissolution  will  quickly  subside,  and  soon  come  to  be  looked 
upon  as  they  should  be,  with  utter  contempt,  both  in  and  out  of  Congress. 
When  that  time  shall  arrive,  the  North  will  not  hesitate  to  consider,  and 
to  act  in  reference  to  the  fact  that  the  benefits  of  the  Union,  as  it  now 
exists,  enure  to  the  South,  and  that  its  chief  object,  as  now  managed,  is 
the  extension  of  Slavery,  for  the  attainment  of  which  the  people  of  the 
North  are  perpetually  taxed  for  the  purchase  of  slave  territory,  or  free 
territory  that  is  to  be  filled  with  slaves,  while  deniedTall  protection  to  them 
selves,  whether  for  the  building  of  mills  and  furnaces  or  for  the  improve- 
ment of  their  rivers  and  harbors.  With  all  this  clearly  felt  and  understood, 
and  with  no  unmeaning  menace  of  disunion  permitted  to  palsy  the  nerves 
of  the  Northern  people,  we  may  look  for  them  to  m.ike  for  themselves 
another  and  a  very  different  government  from  that  which  of  late  years  has 
been  made  for  them  by  the  Southern  men,  who  have  "  obtained  the  mas- 
tery in  Congress,"  and  have  "  so  changed  its  policy,"  that  it  has  "fostered 
the  interests  "  of  those  who  desired  to  buy  bone,  muscle,  and  sinew,  in  the 
form  of  laborers,  at  the  cost  of  those  who  desired  to  sell  their  own  labor  for 
the  benefit  of  themselves,  their  wives,  and  their  children. 


502 


Appendix. 


REAL  WEAKNESS  OP  THE  SOUTH. 

On  a  former  occasion,  we  demonstrated  to  our  readers  that  a  separate 
confederacy  of  the  Southern  States  could  embrace  no  member  of  the  pres- 
ent Union  north  of  South  Carolina  and  Alabama,  and  that,  whenever 
formed,  it  would  be  utterly  powerless  for  the  accomplishment  of  Southern 
objects.  This,  however,  would  be  equally  true  of  any  such  Union,  were  it 
even  to  include  all  the  States  south  of  Maryland  and  Missouri,  several  of 
which  can  never,  under  any  circumstances,  venture  to  separate  themselves 
from  the  North. 

Power  grows  with  the  increase  of  wealth.  The  honest,  industrious,  and 
prudent  man,  who  respects  the  rights  of  others,  finds  himself  from  year  to 
year  more  able  to  claim  and  to  enforce  respect  for  his  o^vn.  The  spend- 
thrift, the  drunkard,  and  the  gambler,  holding  in  small  respect  the  rights  of 
others,  lose  by  degrees  all  power  to  direct  themselves,  and  end  their  days 
in  hospitals  or  almshouses.  The  farmer  who  obtains  good  prices  for  his 
grain  is  enabled  from  day  to  day  to  add  to  his  facilities  for  production  and 
transportation,  to  improve  the  condition  of  his  family,  and  to  increase  his 
contributions  for  the  improvement  of  schools  for  his  children ;  and  with 
every  step  in  this  direction  there  is  increase  of  power  ;  whereas,  he  who  is 
forced  to  accept  low  prices  finds  himself  declining  in  power  from  day  to 
day,  until  at  length  his  farm  passes  into  the  hands  of  the  sheriff,  and  he 
himself  becomes  a  wanderer  and  a  day  laborer.  So  it  is  with  communities ; 
those  that  are  enabled  to  command  high  prices  find  themselves  becoming 
more  powerful  from  year  to  year,  whereas,  those  which,  like  Portugal,  Tur- 
key, Mexico,  India,  Virginia,  and  Carolina,  are  from  year  to  year  obliged 
to  give  more  commodities  for  less  money,  become  weaker  with  every  suc- 
ceeding period. 

The  policy  of  the  Slave  States  tends  in  one  or  the  other  of  these  direc- 
tions. And  as  the  question  of  power  is  only  a  question  of  wealth,  we  may 
here  advantageously  examine  what  has  been  the  effect  of  their  past  course 
upon  the  prices  of  their  staples.  If  they  have  tended  upward,  then  may 
the  South  form  for  itself  a  powerful  Union,  but  if  they  have  tended  in  the 
opposite  direction,  then  must  that  Union,  wherever  and  however  formed, 
be  a  weak  and  insignificant  one.  What  are  the  facts,  we  propose  now  to 
show: 

Twenty  years  ago,  say  in  th?  period  from  1832  to  1838,  the  average  yield 
of  cotton  was  about  1,350,000  bales,  and  the  average  price,  as  stated  by  Mr. 
Walker  some  years  since,  was  thirteen  and  a  half  cents  per  pound.  Since 
then,  the  population  of  the,  cotton-growing  States  has  almost  doubled,  and 
the  crop  has  somewuat  more  than  doubled,  having  thus  but  little  more 
than  kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  numbers.  The  crop  of  the  present 
year  is  now  estimated  at  little  more  than  2,800,000  bales,  and  yet  the  price 
of  middling,  which  gives  the  average  of  the  whole,  is  at  this  moment  quot- 
ed at  New  Orleans  at  eight  cents,  "with  a  declining  tctdency."  Fortu- 
nately for  the  planter  the  crop  is  very  short.  Had  it  pro'.  ed  to  be  as  was 
expected,  3,300,000  bales,  it  may  well  be  doubted  if  it  would  now  command 


Appendix. 


503 


even  one  haifot  the  average  price  of  the  period  to  which  we  first  referred. 
Here  is  a  great  reduction,  and  to  what  is  it  due  ?  To  any  increase  in  the 
value  of  money  ?  Certainly  not;  for  in  the  time  that  has  since  elapsed  the 
great  gold  fields  of  California  and  Australia  have  been  discovered.  To 
any  general  diminution  of  prices  ?  Certainly  not ;  for  wheat,  com,  rye, 
hay,  butchers'  meat,  and  all  the  raw  products  of  the  earth,  except  those 
hi  the  raisinfl  of  which  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  are  con- 
cerned, have  largely  advanced  in  price.  Copper,  tin,  lead,  and  iron  have 
also  advanced.  House  rents  are  higher  than  were  ever  known ;  the  freights 
of  ships  are  enormous.  And  thus  all  things  are  high  except  cotton  and 
sugar,  the  two  commodities  upon  the  price  of  which  depends  the  power 
of  our  Southern  neighbors. 

In  this  period  our  crop  of  sugar  has  risen  from  about  nothing  to  330,000 
hhds.,  or  350  millions  of  pounds;  and  that  of  molasses  to  21  millions  of 
gallons,  and  the  chief  part  of  this  increase  is  due  to  the  protection  afforded 
by  the  tariff  of  '42.  But  for  that  portion  of  Northern  policy,  nearly  the 
whole  force  employed  in  raising  sugar  would  be  now  at  work  in  the  cotton- 
fields,  giving  probably  another  half  miilion  of  bales,  with  a  price  less  by 
one  third  than  that  at  which  it  now  is  sold.  To  the  diversification  of  em- 
ployment thus  given  to  the  South  is  therefore  due  the  fact  that  the  price 
has,  even  thus  far,  been  maintained.  It  is  the  North,  as  we  have  already 
said,  that  has  stood  between  the  South  and  ruin. 

The  South  had  three  cents  a  pound  on  sugar,  but  jealousy  of  the  North 
prompted  it  to  inflict  upon  the  people  of  the  Union  the  tariff  of  1846,  with 
its  ad  valorem  system,  and  what  has  been  the  consequence  ?  The  duty  has 
fallen  to  one  cent  per  pound;  the  import  has  risen  to  500  millions  of 
pounds,  and  the  price  has  fallen  in  this  market  to  four  cents,  one  half  of 
which  is  swallowed  up  by  casks,  freights,  and  commission,  leaving  the 
planter  two  cents,  or  only  twice  the  amount  of  the  duty  on  foreign  sugar. 

We  see  thus  that  two  of  the  most  important  commodities  produced  in 
the  world  are  steadily  settling  down  in  price  at  a  time  when  all  the  raw 
produce  of  the  world,  that  of  the  tropical  countries  excepted,  is  as  steadily 
rising ;  a  state  of  things  tending  to  the  increase  of  the  power  of  the  com- 
munties  that  have  to  buy  cotton,  coffee,  and  sugar,  and  to  the  diminution 
of  the  power  of  those  that  have  to  sell  those  commodities.  "Why  this  is 
so  is,  that  the  people  of  the  South  have  never  yet  been  able  to  open  their 
eyes  to  the  truth  of  General  Jackson's  views,  as  given  in  his  letter  to  Dr. 
Coleman,  that  the  true  way  to  increase  the  power  of  the  people  who  have 
raw  commodities  to  sell,  is  to  adopt  the  measures  required  for  diminishing 
the  number  of  producers  and  increasing  the  number  of  consumers.  All 
their  projects  look  to  increasing  the  number  of  producers  of  cottcn  and 
sugar,  and  of  course  increasing  the  competition  for  their  sale.  All  their 
ideas  of  the  true  commercial  policy  of  the  South  are  borrowed  from  the 
books  of  English  writers,  who  seek  to  have  cheap  cotton  and  cheap  sugar, 
and  those  ideas  are  carried  into  practice  by  the  men  of  Alabama  and  Mis- 
sissippi, who  desire  that  cotton  and  sugar  may  be  dear ;  and  who  persist  in 
carrying  out  the  English  policy  in  face  of  the  fact  that,  notwithstanding 


Appendix. 


the  gieat  increase  in  the  supply  of  gold,  the  prices  of  their  commodities 
tend  steadily  towards  a  lower  point,  and  their  own  power  tends  steadily  to 
decliite.  It  was  said  of  old  that  "  those  whom  the  gods  would  destroy  they 
first  make  mad,"  and  all  history  proves  the  fact ;  hut  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  any  where  a  more  striking  proof  of  its  truth  than  is  now  being  fur- 
nished by  the  Slave  States  of  this  Union. 

The  South  now  desires  Cuba,  and  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  it  will 
agree  to  tax  the  people  of  the  North  some  eighty  millions  of  dollars  to- 
wards the  hundred  millions  required  for  its  purchase.  Suppose,  however, 
this  object  attained,  and  the  island  purchased,  will  that  increase  the  power 
of  the  South  ?  We  doubt  it.  Thus  far  its  real  power  has  diminished  as 
its  territory  has  increased,  and  it  has  only  been  by  means  of  purchasing 
"Northern  men  with  Southern  principles  "  that  it  has  maintained  its  posi- 
tion in  the  Union.  Its  real  and  enduring  strength  is  far  less  now,  as  com- 
pared with  the  North,  than  it  was  before  Florida  was  bought,  and  greatly 
less  than  it  was  before  Texas  was  dragged  into  the  Union ;  and  it  will*  be 
etill  less  after  Cuba  shall  have  been  purchased.  The  reason  for  this  is, 
that  thus  far  all  its  measures  have  tended  to  increase  competition  for  the 
sale  of  its  products,  and  such  is  the  tendency  of  the  present  Cuban  move- 
ment. 

With  the  annexation  of  that  island,  the  duty  on  sugar  will  cease,  and 
the  sugar  cultivation  of  Louisiana  and  Texas  must  pass  away,  the  conse- 
quence of  which  must  be  a  steady  tendency  to  increase  the  number  of  pro- 
ducers of  cotton,  wth  a  decline  in  the  price  of  that  staple.  We  shall,  how- 
ever, be  told  that  the  negroes  of  Texas  will  be  taken  to  Cuba  to  raise 
sugar.  Admit  that  such  be  the  case,  will  not  the  effect  be  to  produce  a  still 
more  rapid  decline  in  sugar,  and  will  not  this  drive  more  .people  to  the  pro- 
duction of  cotton  ?  Such  must  certainly  be  the  case.  The  only  effect  of 
the  incorporation  of  Cuba  into  the  Union  will  be  to  increase  the  competi- 
tion for  the  sale  of  Southern  products  and  to  diminish  their  prices. 

It  is  not,  however,  Cuba  alone  that  is  to  be  incorporated  with  the  South ; 
Hayti  is  to  be  added.  "  With  Cuba  and  St.  Domingo,"  says  The  Charles- 
ton Standard,  "  we  could  control  the  productions  of  the  tropics,  and  with 
them,  the  commerce  of  the  world,  and  with  that,  the  power  of  the  world." 
Well,  suppose  Hayti  added,  and  her  land  rendered  more  productive,  can 
such  a  measure  have  any  other  effect  than  that  of  increasing  the  competi- 
tion for  the  sale  of  Southern  products,  and  diminishing  their  prices,  and 
the  power  of  the  men  who  have  them  to  sell  ?  We  think  not.  We  see 
every  where  that  men  who  have  to  work  cheaply  lose  power,  and  to  pro- 
duce this  state  of  things  appears  to  us  to  be  the  tendency  of  all  Southern 
measures,. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  Cuba  and  Hayti  alone  that  Southern  insani'y  now 

directs  its  attention.   It  would  have  the  lands  of  the  Amazon  rendered 

productive  of  all  the  commodities  that  Southern  men  have  to  sell,  with  a 

view,  probably,  of  reducing  their  prices  with  the  greatest  possible  rapidity. 

We  quote  again  from  The  Standard : 

"  Our  true  policy  is  to  look  to  Brazil  as  the  next  great  slave  power,  and  as  the 
government  that  is  to  direct  or  license  the  development  of  the  country  drained  by  tho 


Appendix. 


Amazon,  Instead  of  courting  England  we  sbould  look  to  Brazil  and  the  West  In- 
dies, Tiie  time  will  come  when  a  treaty  of  commerce  aud  alliance  with  Brazil  will 
give  us  the  control  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  its  border  countries,  together  with 
the  islands,  and  the  consequence  of  this  will  place  African  Slavery  beyond  fanati- 
cism, at  homo  or  abroad.  These  two  great  slave  powers  now  hold  more  undevel- 
oped territory  than  anj;  otlier  two  governments,  and  they  ought  to  guard  and 
strengthen  their  mutual  interests  by  acting  together,  in  strict  harmony  and  concert. 
Considering  our  vast  resources  and  the  mighty  commerce  that  is  about  to  expand 
upon  the  bosom  of  the  two  countries,  if  we  act  together  by  treaty,  we  can  Mt  only 
preserve  domestic  servitude,  but  we  can  defy  the  power  of  the  world." 

To  accomplish  all  these  objects,  however,  large  supplies  of  laborers  are 
required,  and,  that  they  may  be  obtained,  the  African  slave  trade  is,  accord- 
ing to  2'he  Standard,  to  be  opened  up  "  again  to  people  the  whole  region 
of  the  tropics."  Will  this,  however,  enrich  and  strengthen  the  South  ? 
We  think  not.  With  the  reopening  of  the  slave  trade,  the  price  of  negroes 
will  probably  fall  about  three  fourths ;  and  if  we  take  the  present  average 
value  of  men  and  women,  old  and  young,  sick  and  well,  at  but  five  hundred 
dollars,  here  will  be  a  diminution  of  wealth  to  the  extent  of  not  less  than 
twelve  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  In  such  case,  what  will  become  of  the 
owners  of  the  existing  generatioD  of  slaves  ?   Must  they  not  be  ruined  ? 

This,  however,  is  not  all.  The  more  slaves  the  more  cotton  and  sugar 
there  will  be,  and  the  more  of  these  commodities  ftrf  sale  the  larger  mil 
be  the  quantity  to  be  given  for  the  same  quantity  of  cloth,  com,  lead,  or 
iron.  Every  planter  knows  that  he  profits  by  short  crops  of  cotton  in  In- 
dia, or  of  sugar  in  Brazil,  and  that  he  suffers  when  they  have  large  crops ; 
and  yet  these  very  men  are  now  laboring  to  increase  the  crops  of  Cuba, 
Hayti,  and  Brazil,  under  the  idea  that  power  goes  with  the  surface  owned, 
and  wth  the  quantity  of  commodities  produced,  and  not  with  the  quantity 
of  other  commodities  obtained  in  exchange  for  them.  A  more  remarkable 
case  of  insanity  has  never  yet  been  furnished  by  the  world. 

We  are  told,  ho\  ever,  that  the  North  is  being  enriched  by  immigration, 

and  that  the  condiv..    of  the  immigrant  is  improved,  and  are  asked,  as  the 

eminent  authority  we  hav  ?  already  cited  tells  us, 

*'  If  it  be  mercy  to  give  the  grain-growing  sections  of  America  to  the  poor  and 
hungry  of  Europe,  why  not  open  up  the  tropics  to  the  poor  African  ?  The  one  region 
is  as  eminently  suited  to  them  as  the  other  is  to  the  white  race.  There  is  as  much 
philanthropy  in  one  as  in  the  other.  We  have  been  too  long  governed  by  psalm- 
singing  schoolmasters  from  the  North.  It  is  time  to  think  for  ourselves.  The  folly 
commenced  in  our  own  government  uniting  with  Great  Britain  to  declare  slave 
importation  piracy.  Piracy  is  a  crime  on  the  high  seas,  arising  under  the  law  of 
nations,  and  it  is  as  well  defined  by  those  laws  as  murder  is  at  common  law.  And 
for  two  nations  to  attempt  to  make  that  piracy  which  is  uot  so  under  the  law 
of  nations,  is  an  absurdity." 

That  the  North  is  enriched  by  immigration  is  most  true,  but  such  would 
not  be  the  case  if  the  North  were  pertinaciously  to  insist  that  every  immi- 
grant should  raise  only  wheat,  corn,  or  tobacco.  The  men  who  come  to 
the  North  sell  their  own  labor,  and  are  always  seeking  so  to  diversify  their 
employments  as  to  render  each  and  every  man  a  customer  to  his  neighbor. 
The  market,  therefore,  grows  with  the  supply,  and  the  faster  men  come 
the  greater  is  the  demand  for  labor,  except  when  Southern  policy  inter- 
venes to  close  the  mills  and  furnaces,  and  to  force  the  whole  people  of  the 
North  to  resort  to  agriculture  as  the  sole  means  of  subsistence,  as  was  the 
43 


5o6 


Appendix. 


case  in.  1841-42.  With  all  tlie  vast  increase  of  production,  the  domestic 
demand  that  has  resulted  from  protection,  even  so  far  as  our  farmers  have 
obtained  it,  has  grown  so  fast,  that  we  have  now  far  less  food  to  send 
abroad  than  we  had  thirty  years  since,  and  prices  are  far  higher  now  than 
they  were  then.  Had  the  North  repudiated  protection  it  would  be  poorer 
now  than  it  was  then,  for  it  would  have  more  to  send  abroad,  and  would 
get  less  in  exchange  for  it.  Had  the  South  adopted  protection,  it  would 
have  now  far  less  for  which  it  must  seek  a  market  abroad,  and  would  be  re- 
ceiving twice  as  much  cloth,  iron,  copper,  tin,  and  lead,  in  exchange  for 
the  diininished  quantity.  Under  the  Northern  system  profit  and  power 
grow  with  increase  of  population,  but  under  the  Southern  one  all  have 
diminished,  and.  must  continue  to  diminish.  The  greater  the  territory  and 
the  greater  the  population,  the  greater  must  be  the  quantity  of  Southern 
produce  required  to  go  abioad,  the  lower  must  be  the  prices,  and  the  weak- 
er must  become  the  cotton-growers ;  and  therefore  the  realization  of  South- 
em  schemes  to  their  fullest  extent  can  only  render  the  members  of  the 
anticipated  Southern  Union  very  much  poorer,  weaker,  and  less  respect- 
able than  they  are  at  present. 

THE  NORTHERN  SLAVE  STATES. 

Our  readers  must,  we  think,  be  satisfied  that  no  division  of  the  Union 
can  take  place  which  will  deprive  Virginia,  Kentucky,  North  Carolina,  or 
Tennessee,  of  the  benefits  they  now  derive  from  their  connection  with  the 
North.  The  last  three  have  been  Whig  States,  generally  identified  with 
the  North  as  to  the  true  course  of  national  policy,  and  nothing  but  the 
wildest  insanity  could  lead  them  to  a  connection  with  the  extremists  of  the 
South.  As  regards  Virginia,  the  State  so  remarkable,  as  we  are  told  by 
The  Enquirer,  for  the  perfect  development  of  "  the  principles  of  self-gov- 
ernment," and  for  "the  dignity,  propriety,  and  self-possession  of  the 
dominant  race,"  she  has  been  l^^ept  in  her  present  position  only  by  a 
denial  to  nearly  one  half  of  her  nominally  free  population  of  any  claim 
whatever  to  the  exercise  of  "  self-government."  Her  system  is  a  tyranny 
equally  with  that  of  South  Carolina.  Out  of  92,000  votes  cast  in  1848,  Gen- 
eral Taylor  had  45,250,  or  within  750  of  one  half  the  whole  number,  and 
yet  this  immense  minority  was  represented  on  the  floor  of  Congress  by  but 
a  single  member,  "  the  lone  star  "  that  was  by  "the  dominant  race  "  per- 
mitted to  shed  its  light  upon  the  deliberations  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives. Such,  too,  has  been  the  case  during  many  years,  that  the  State  has 
been  nearly  equally  divided  between  the  Whigs  and  Democrats.  Out  of 
96,000  votes,  Mr.  Clay  had  within  2,500  of  one  half;  but  so  admirably  had 
the  State  been  Gerrymandered  by  "the  dominant  race,"  so  conspicuous 
for  its  admiration  of  "  self-government,"  that  that  great  minority  was 
almost  entirely  denied  the  privilege  of  representation,  and  was  thus 
gagged  to  prevent  it  from  disturbing  in  any  manner  the  "  dignity,  proprie- 
ty,  and  self-possession  "  of  those  who  preferred  the  government  of  "  North- 
ern men  with  Southern  principles  "  to  that  of  high-minded  and  honorable 
Southern  men  like  Henry  Clay  and  Winfield  Scott.  ' 


Appendix. 


One  fifth  of  the  whole  population  of  the  State  over  twenty  years  of  age 
cannot  read  at  all,  and  this  would  give  about  20,000  voters  who  can  neither 
read  nor  write.  Of  these  nineteen  twentieths  may  be  set  do^vn  as  belonging 
to  the  Gerrymandering  party  that  has  ruled  the  State,  being  at  least  six  times 
the  majority  by  which  it  has  been  so  long  administered  in  the  interests  of 
the  South.  The  celebrated  "  tenth  legion,"  the  stronghold  of  what  is  called 
Democracy,  has  in  it  little  short  of  two  thousand  voters  who  can  neither  read 
nor  write,  and  whose  votes  axe  given,  invariably,  for  the  pro-slavery  candi- 
date, and  it  is  by  such  men  that  the  majority  is  furnished.  The  day  is  not, 
however,  distant  when  the  intelligence  and  moral  feeling  of  the  State  will 
obtain  some  control  over  its  management ;  for  already  its  people  are  awak- 
ing to  the  fact  thr-t  with  every  advantage  nature  could  give  them,  they  are 
declining  in  wealth  and  power,  while  the  State  is  diminishing  from  year  to 
year  in  its  influence  upon  the  movements  of  the  Union.  Her  people  are 
now  being  told  by  The  Lynchburg  Virginian  that, 

"  Her  coal  fields  are  the  most  extensive  in  the  world,  and  her  coal  of  the  best  and 
purest  quality.  Hor  iron  deposits  are  altogetlier  inexliaustible,  and  in  many  instan- 
ces 80  pure,  that  it  is  malleable  in  its  primitive  state,  and  many  of  these  deposits  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  extensive  coal  fields.  She  has,  too,  very  extensive  depos- 
its of  copiter,  lead,  and  gypsum.  Her  rivers  are  numerous  and  bold,  generally  with 
fall  enough  for  extensive  water  power.  The  James  River,  at  Richmond,  affords  a 
convertible  water-power,  immensely  superior  to  that  of  the  Merrimack,  at  Lowell, 
and  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  Genesee,  at  Rochester.  The  James  River,  at  her  pas- 
sage through  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  the  Potomac,  at  Harper's  Ferry,  both  afibrd  great 
water-power.  The  Kanawha,  or  New  River,  has  an  immense  fall.  There  is  hardly 
a  section  of  five  miles  between  the  Falls  of  Kanawha  and  the  North  Carolina  line, 
that  has  not  fall  enough  for  working  the  most  extensive  machinery.  ...  A  re- 
markable feature  in  the  mining  and  manufacturing  prospects  of  Vircinia  is  the  ease 
and  economy  with  which  ail  her  minerals  are  mined  ;  instead  of  bting,  as  in  Eng- 
land and  elsewhere,  generally  imbedded  deep  within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  from 
which  they  can  be  got  only  with  great  labor  and  at  great  cost,  ours  are  found  every 
wrhere  on  the  hills  and  slopes,  with  their  ledges  dipping  in  the  direction  of  the  plains 
below.  Why,  then,  should  not  Virginia  at  once  employ  at  least  half  of  hor  labor 
and  capital  in  mining  and  manufacturing?  Richmond  could  as  profitably  inanufac- 
tdro  all  cotton  and  woollen  goods  as  Lowell,  or  any  other  town  in  New  England. 
Why  should  not  Lynchburg,  with  all  her  promised  facility  of  getting  coal  and  pig 
metal,  manufacture  all  articles  of  iron  and  steel  just  as  cheaply,  and  yet  as  profita- 
bly, as  any  portion  of  the  Northern  States?  Why  should  not  every  town  and  village 
on  the  line  of  every  railroad  in  the  State,  erect  their  shops,  in  which  they  may  man- 
ufacture a  thousand  articles  of  daily  consumption,  just  as  good  and  cheap  as  they 
may  be  made  any  where  ?  " 

Simply  because  "Virginia  has  preferred  to  manufacture  her  com  into 
negroes,  by  the  sale  of  which  to  purchase  her  cloth  and  her  iron,  rather 
than  take  for  herself  the  protection  required  to  enable  her  to  make  her 
cloth,  her  iron,  her  railroad  bars,  and  her  steam-engines  at  home.  She 
has  been  the  steady  advocate  of  the  policy  that  looked  to  the  depression  of 
the  free  laborer  to  the  condition  of  the  slave,  when  her  true  interest^  lay 
in  the  direction  which  looked  towards  the  elevation  of  the  slave  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  freeman.  She  has  pursued  a  policy  that  has  kept  her,  as  The 
Virginian  further  says, 

"  Dependent  upon  Europe  and  the  North  for  almost  every  yard  of  cloth,  and  every 
coat  and  boot  and  hat  we  wear ;  for  our  axes,  scythes,  tubs,  and  buckets  —  in  short, 
for  every  thing  except  our  bread  and  meat  ?  It  must  occur  to  the  South  that  if  our 
relations  with  the  North  should  ever  be  severed — and  how  soon  they  may  be  none 
can  know  (may  God  avert  it  long!)  —  wo  would,  in  all  the  South,  not  be  able  to 
clothe  ourselves.  Wo  could  not  toll  our  forests,  plough  our  fields,  nor  mow  our 


5o8 


Appendix. 


nieadowEi.  In  fact,  we  should  be  reduced  to  a  staio  more  abject  than  we  are  willing 
to  look  at,  even  prospectively.  And  yet  with  all  these  things  staring  us  in  the  face, 
we  shut  our  eyes,  and  go  on  blindfold." 

All  this  is  most  true,  but  why  is  it  so  ?  Because  whenever^  under  the 
free  labor  policy,  as  in  the  years  1844  to  1847,  any  attempt  is  made  at  es- 
tablishing manufactures  in  Virginia,  the  representatives  of  its  tenth  legion 
in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate  are  always  found  ready  with  their  votes  to 
crush  the  unfortunate  man  who  has  been  induced  so  to  invest  his  capital. 
Her  Senators  even  now  stand,  as  we  believe,  instructed  to  vote  for  the 
abolition  of  the  duty  on  railroad  iron,  and  yet  she  is  capable  of  furnish- 
ing the  whole  demand  of  the  Union  for  that  important  commodity.  To 
the  folly  of  this  course,  her  people  are  now  becoming  awake,  and  even 
The  Richmond  Enquirer  tells  its  readers  that, 

<'  In  no  State  of  the  Confederacy  do  the  facilities  fbr  manufacturing  operations 
exist  in  greater  profusion  than  in  Virginia.  Every  condition  essential  lo  success  in 
these  employments  is  found  here  in  prodigal  abundance  and  in  a  peculiarly  con- 
venient combination.  First,  we  have  a  limitless  supply  of  water-power —  the  cheap- 
est of  motors  —  in  localities  easy  of  access.  So  abundant  is  this  supply  of  water- 
power  that  no  value  is  attached  to  it  distinct  from  the  adjacent  lands,  except  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  larger  towns.  On  the  Potomac  and  its  tributaries ;  on  the  Rappa- 
bannocic ;  on  the  James  and  its  tributaries ;  on  the  Roanoke  and  its  tributaries  :  on 
the  Uolston,  the  Kanawha,  and  other  streams,  numberless  sites  may  be  found  where 
the  supply  of  water-power  is  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  a  Lawrence  or  a  Lowell. 
Nor  is  there  any  want  of  material  for  building  at  these  localities ;  timber  and  granite 
are  abundant ;  and,  to  complete  the  circle  of  advantages,  the  climate  is  genial 
and  healthful,  and  the  soil  eminently  productive.  .  .  ,  Another  advantage 
which  Virginia  possesses  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  is  the  proximity  of  its  mills 
to  the  raw  material.  At  the  present  prices  of  the  staple,  the  value  of  this  advantage 
is  estimated  at  ten  per  cent.  Oar  railway  system,  penetrating  into  every  part  of  the 
State,  will  facilitate  the  transfer  of  cotton  to  the  most  remote  localities.  Instead  of 
expatiating  on  the  causes  of  the  shameful  neglect  of  the  magnificent  resources  and 
advantages  for  manufacturing  operations  which  Virginia  possesses  in  such  abun- 
dance, we  choose  rather  to  suggest  some  reasons  why  the  State  should,  especially  at 
this  particular  juncture,  apply  its  energy  and  capital  to  this  inviting  field  of  enter- 
prise. One  among  the  inevitable  effects  of  the  crisis  in  Europe,  is  the  comparative 
prostration  of  the  manufacturing  interest  in  Great  Britain.  The  withdrawal  of 
capital  from  the  operations  of  trade  to  sustain  the  operations  of  war — tlie  gonerul 
rise  in  the  price  of  bread  —  the  stringency,  uncertainty,  and  sudden  fluctuations  in 
the  money  market — wlM  all  contribute  to  impair  the  ability  of  Great  Britain  to 
maintain  its  ascendency^  while,  in  consequence  of  the  rupture  of  old  commercial 
relations,  new  and  exclusive  markets  will  be  thrown  open  to  the  products  of  Ameri- 
can industry.  Moreover,  in  this  general  interruption  of  trade  and  prostration  of 
the  manufacturing  interest,  the  great  Southern  staple  must  suffer  unless  an  original 
and  compensating  demand  for  cotton  be  created  in  this  country.  Leaving  out  of 
view  its  effect  on  the  general  prosperity  of  the  State,  the  creation  of  a  new  demand 
for  labor  by  manufacturing  enterprises  would  tend  to  arrest  the  tide  which  annually 
sweeps  away  so  large  a  portion  of  our  Slave  population.  The  increase  in  the  value 
of  Slave  property,  consequent  on  the  demand  for  labor  on  our  works  of  internal  im- 
provement, has  already  partially  checked  the  trado  to  the  South.  An  additional 
counter  demand  would  stop  it  entirely." 

This  is  almost  true.  "An  additional  counter  demand"  for  labor  would 
terminate  the  domestic  Slave-trade,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  Slave, 
his  owner,  and  the  State.  The  establishment  of  such  a  demand  would, 
however,  be  entirely  impossible  in  connection  with  any  Southern  Union, 
for  the  repudiation  of  protection  is  a  cardinal  principle  with  all  the  advo- 
cates of  such  a  Union.  They  seek  to  have  free  trade  in  the  impprtation 
of  cloth,  iron,  and  negroes,  whereas  Virginia'  needs  either  protection  for 
cloth  and  iron,  or  a  continuation  of  that  protection  to  the  negro  trade  that 


Appendix.  509 


she  has  so  long  enjoyed,  and  without  which  she  cannot  exist,  unless,  as 
suggested  by  The  Enquirer,  she  establishes  such  a  "  counter  demand"  for 
labor  as  shall  render  her  soil  attractive  of  immigration,  instead  of  being, 
as  heretofore,  so  repulsive  as  to  drive  from  it  not  only  the  slave  but  the 
free  population.    .  ' 

In  the  last  thirty  years,  the  politicians  who  have  Gerrymandered  the 
State  have  governed  it  with  special  regard  to  their  own  private  interests ; 
and  have  thus  compelled  the  export  of  population  to  such  an  extent  as  to 
have  built  up  an  extreme  South,  that  now  pi  oposes  to  act  for  itself  in  op- 
position to  all  the  States  north  of  South  Carolina  and  Alabama,  as  was 
done  by  the  former  State  and  Georgia  at  the  time  of  the  formation  of  the 
Constitution.  They  desire  to  free  themselves  from  the  necessity  for  pay- 
ing high  prices  for  "Virginia  slaves  when  Africans  can  be  bought  at  low 
ones,  and  they  therefore  repudiate  altogether  the  idea  of  having  her  or 
Kentucky,  North  Carolina  or  Tennessee,  in  the  new  Unioii,  that  is,  as  we 
are  told,  to  people  "  the  noble  region  of  the  tropics ; "  to  "  control "  their 
productions,  "  and  with  them  the  commerce  of  the  world."  "  We  will  not 
have  them,"  say  they  —  "we  do  not  want  them;  we  desire  to  have  no 
grain-growing  State ;  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  may  go  where  they 
please,  but  they  aliall  not  be  admitted  to  our  companionship."  Such  are 
the  circumstances  under  which  Virginia  now  exists,  and  those  who  will 
reflect  upon  this  will,  as  we  think,  come  to  the  conclusion  at  which  we 
long  since  have  arrived,  that  it  is  not  only  absolutely  impossible  that  any 
Southern  Union  should  be  formed  embracing  the  States  north  of  South 
Carolina  and  Alabama,  but  equally  impossible  that  the  present  attitude  of 
the  extreme  South  should  fail  to  produce  in  the  more  northern  of  the  Slave 
States  a  feeling  of  the  necessity  for  strengthening  themselves  by  an  adop- 
tion of  the  policy  of  those  north  of  them,  wth  which  their  interests  must, 
of  necessity,  continue  to  be  connected. 

THE  REAL  DISUNIONISTS. 

The  only  States  that  can  by  any  possibility  secede  from  their  connection 
with  the  North,  are  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama,  and  the  five 
States  that  have  been  formed  from  the  territory  purchased  by  the  Union,  and 
mainly  at  Northern  cost,  for  the  South,  to  wit,  Florida,  Mississippi,  Arkan- 
sas, Louisiana,  and  Texas.  These  eight  States,  that  now  undertake  to 
dictate  the  whole  policy  of  the  Union,  contained  at  the  last  census  four 
millions  of  persons,  of  whom  nearly  eighteen  hundred  thousand  were 
property,  enabling  less  than  ttco  and  a  quarter  millions  of  whites  to  coun- 
tervail in  the  House  of  Representatives  the  votes  of  three  and  a  quarter 
millions  of  Northern  freemen.*  To  the  Senate  they  furnished  sixteen 
members,  while  New  York,  and  the  two  adjoining  States,  with  almost 
seven  and  a  half  millions  of  people,  none  of  whom  are  property,  gave  but 
six,  and  thus  it  has  been  that  this  population,  so  insignificant  in  point  of 
numbers  or  wealth,  has  been  enabled  to  taz  the  North  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  its  piirposes. 

*  That  is,  of  voters.  J.  R. 

43* 


510 


Appendix. 


T?ie  South,  the  fonnidablc  South,  of  which  we  heav  so  much,  constitutes 
then,  at  the  present  moment,  so  far  as  the  white  population,  which  is  the 
element  of  strength,  ksa  than  one  tenth  of  the  Union,  but  so  far  as  regards 
the  bb.ck  population,  which  is  the  element  of  weakness,  it  is  more  than 
one  half  of  the  Union. 

Tlie  North,  the  poor  and  contemptible  North,  that  lives,  as  we  are  told, 
upon  the  contributions  of  the  South,  possesses  at  this  moment  twenty  mil- 
lions of  free  white  people  who  sell  their  own  labor,  while  it  contains  but  a 
million  and  a  half  of  mm,  women,  and  children,  of  the  class  whose  labor  is 
sold  by  others.  To  compare  the  two,  as  regards  strength,  would  be  to  com- 
pare  the  infant  with  the  full-grown  man,  or  the  pygmy  with  the  giant ;  and 
yet,  this  weak  and  insignificant  South  has  been  permitted  to  direct,  and 
does  now  direct,  the  policy  of  the  Union.  Sinbad  like,  the  North  has  per* 
mitted  the  South  to  mount  its  shoulders,  and  to  play  the  part  of  "  the 
old  man  of  the  sea,"  until  Northern  patience  has  become  at  length  ex- 
hausted, and  Northern  men  have  begun  to  calculate  the  real  strength  of 
the  faction  t>y  which  their  destinies  have  been  so  long  determined. 

The  South  desires  now  to  purchase  Cuba,  to  obtain  possession  of  Hayti, 
to  conquer  Mexico,  to  add  the  British  and  French  West  Indies  to  the  new 
Slave  Republic ;  then  to  open  the  territory  of  the  Amazon  to  cultivation 
by  slaves,  and  thus,  in  concert  with  Brazil,  to  obtain,  as  it  says,  control  of 
"  the  commerce  of  the  world."  Among  the  earliest  of  the  measures  re- 
quired for  the  accomplishment  of  these  great  objects  is  the  reopening  of 
the  African  Slave-trade,  with  the  view  to  obtaining  what  is  so  much  desired 
by  English  manufacturers  and  American  planters,  a  cheap  and  abundant 
supply  of  slave-labor. 

This  is  a  magnificent  scheme,  but  what  is  it  to  cost,  and  whence  are  to 
come  the  means  for  its  accomplishment  ?  A  hundred  millions  have  already 
been  ofiered  by  the  South  for  Cuba  alone,  and.  the  price  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  millions  has  since  been  mentioned.  To  purchase  the  control  of 
Hayti  would  require  many  millions,  and  yet  this  would  constitute  but  a 
very  small  portion  of  the  very  numerous  millions  that  would  be  required 
for  reintroducing  Slavery  into  the  other  islands,  and  for  reestablishing  the 
Slave-trade  in  the  face  of  the  unanimous  decision  of  the  world,  that  it  is 
to  be  regarded  as  piracy,  and  treated  as  such.  To  do  all  this  would  require 
fleets  and  armies  of  great  power,  and  if  we  add  the  cost  of  them  to  pay- 
ments for  land,  it  will,  we  think,  be  fair  to  say  that  the  scheme  of  the 
South  cannot  be  carried  into  effect  at  a  smaller  cost  than  fifty  millions  of 
dollars  a  year,  in  addition  to  the  ordinary  expenditures  of  government. 
Since  the  South  obtained  control  in  1829,  it  has  swelled  the  expenditures 
from  twelve  millions  to  more  than  forty,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  if  Southern  domination  be  continued,  they  mil  be  swelled  to  sec- 
etdy,*  or  fifty  millions  more  than  would  be  required  for  the  maintenance 
of  a  government  administered  on  Northern  principles. 

In  the  event  of  secession,  however,  the  South — that  is  to  say,  the  peo- 


*  True,  as  Inspired  prophecy.  Already,  in  ie50,  only  five  yoare  after  this  was  pub- 
lished, tha  expenses  have  ran  up  to  nearly  $80,000,000  a  year.  J.  8. 


Appendix.  51 ! 


pie  of  the  eight  States  of  the  extreme  South  —  \rould  have  to  pay  ft*  the 
cost  of  carrying  out  their  schemes ;  and  we  may,  therefore,  properly  in- 
quire into  the  extent  of  their  means  for  doing  this.  They  have  about  two 
and  a  half  millions  of  bales  of  cotton  to  sell,  and  at  present  prices  those 
may  be  set  down  at  about  ninety  millions  of  dollars.  The  sugar  trade 
would  perish  from  the  moment  of  secession,  and  the  sugar  planters  would 
be  driven  to  cotton,  the  effect  of  which  would  be  a  large  reduction  in 
its  price.  We  will,  however,  admit  that  the  new  republic  may  export  cot- 
ton and  rice  to  the  amount  of  a  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  or  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  head  of  its  Free  and  Slave  population,  and  that  is  certainly 
the  highest  estimate  that  can  be  made.  With  this  hundred  millions  it  will 
have  to  purchase  its  silks  and  its  laces,  its  cottons  and  woollens,  its  wag- 
ons, carriages,  and  furniture ;  its  axes  and  ploughs,  its  mules  and  horses, 
and  much  of  its  food,  and  when  these  shall  be  paid  for  there  will  remain 
small  means  for  maintaining  the  fleets  and  armies  required  for  carrying 
into  effect  its  numerous  and  extensive  schemes  of  aggrandizement.  It  has 
now  entire  freedom  of  trade  in  by  far  the  largest  part  of  all  the  commodi- 
ties required  for  its  consumption,  but  under  its  new  system,  a  duty  of  fifty 
per  cent,  upon  all  the  commodities  that  entered  within  its  limits  would  by 
no  means  suffice  for  its  expenditures.  The  first  act  of  the  new  "free 
trade  "  Union  would,  of  necessity,  be  an  increased  interference  with  trade. 

The  Southern  mode  of  carrying  on  a  government  is,  however,  chiefly  by 
aid  of  loans.  Under  the  Northern  system,  that  prevailed  from  1829  to 
1833,  we  paid  off  our  debt.  Under  the  Southern  one,  that  prevailed  from 
1834  to  1842,  we  contracted  a  new  debt  at  six  per  cent.,  after  having  paid 
off  one  at  three  per  cent.  Under  the  tariff  of  1842,  we  commenced  anew 
to  reduce  the  debt,  but  when  the  South  again  obtained  control  of  the  gov- 
ernment, we  ran  again  into  debt  for  the  maintenance  of  war  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  Southern  jbjects.  Such  being  the  case,  we  may  reasonably 
suppose  that  the  new  S'  av2  republic  would,  in  the  outset,  endeavor  to  stretch 
its  credit,  and  thus  p.s  far  as  possible  avoid  the  necessity  for  taxation. 
Here,  however,  it  would  encounter  great  difficulties.  Of  the  eight  States 
there  are  three  that  have  not  yet  paid  their  old  debts ;  and  until  they  shall 
do  so,  they  will  never  be  permitted  to  contract  jt  new  one.  Texas,  Missis- 
ippi,  and  Florida  arc  now  in  a  state  of  repudiation,  and  they  would  con- 
stitute three  eighths  of  the  new  republic.  Such  a  Union  would  have  no 
credit  even  for  the  most  laudable  purposes,  and  still  less  when  its  object 
was  boldly  proclaimed  to  be  to  "  reopen  the  African  Slave-trade."  to  pre- 
serve domestic  servitude,"  and  to  "  defy  the  power  of  the  world."  The 
commercial  credit  of  such  a  community  would  be  on  a  par  with  that  of 
Algiers,  Tripoli,  Tunis,  or  any  other  piratical  State.  Neither  Europe  nor 
America  would  lend  money  for  the  promotion  of  such  objects,  particularly 
when  it  was  clearly  seen  that  the  only  effect  of  the  accomplishment  of 
Southern  schemes  would  be  to  increase  the  quantity  of  Southern  produce 
pressing  on  the  market,  and  to  diminish  its  price.  Every  capitalist  knows 
well  that  the  larger  the  quantity  of  a  comiaodity  that  mttst  be  sold,  the 
poorer  and  more  dspeudent  mtist  become  its  producer.  Every  such  mau 


512 


Appendix. 


applied  to  for  a  loan  would  sej;  that  the  whole  tendency  of  Southern  pro- 
jects was  towards  increasing  the  competition  for  the  sale  of  Southern  prod- 
ucts, the  on^y  ones  whose  prices  are  even  now  failing,  notwitkstattding  the 
increased  production  of  yoldy  and  that  every  step  in  that  direction  must 
increase  the  dependence  of  their  producers.  The  South  could  therefore 
effect  no  loans,  and  were  it  to  attempt  to  raise  by  taxation  the  means 
required  for  carrying  out  its  schemes,  it  would  drive  its  population  back  to 
the  North  as  the  only  means  of  escape  from  the  oppressions  of  the  Slave 
republic.  • 

Such  a  Union  would  be  utterly  powerless,  and  we  may,  therefore,  rest 
secure  that  it  will  never  be  formed.  The  North  has  thus  far  carried  the 
South  on  its  shoulders,  and  so  it  is  bound  to  do  in  all  time  to  come.  It 
has  purchased  its  lands,  maintained  the  fleets  and  armies  required  for  its 
purposes,  and  stood  between  it  and  the  public  opinion  of  the  world  while 
maintaining  the  value  of  its  commodities  and  giving  value  to  its  labor  and 
land.  During  the  whole  of  this  period  it  has  borne  unmeasured  inso- 
lence, and  has,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  permitted  its  whole  policy  to  be  gov- 
erned by  a  body  of  Slaveholders  amounting  to  but  little  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  million  in  number.  It  hps  made  one  compromise  after  another, 
until  at  length  the  day  of  compromise  has  past,  and  has  given  place  to  the 
day  on  which  the  South  and  the  North  —  the  advocates  of  Slave  labor  on 
the  one  side  and  of  Free  labor  on  the  other  —  are  now  to  measure  strength, 
and  we  trust  it  will  be  measured. 

Falstaff  was  strong  in  words,  but  weak  in  action.  So  it  is  with  the 
South,  whose  every  movement  betokens  conscious  weakness.  For  a  quarter 
of  a  century  past  she  has  been  holding  conventions,  at  which  it  has  been 
resolved  that  Norfolk,  Charleston,  and  Savannah  should  become  great 
commercial  cities,  which  obstinately  they  refuse  to  be.  She  has  resolved 
upon  all  kinds  of  expedients  for  raising  the  price  of  cotton,  which  yet  is 
lower  by  one  third  than  it  was  twenty  years  since.  iShe  has  resolved  to 
suppress  the  discussion  of  Slavery,  and  the  discussion  is  now  more  rife 
than  ever  before.  She  has  resolved  upon  becoming  strong  and  independ- 
ent,' but  is  now  more  dependent  on  the  forbearance  of  the  world  than  in 
any  time  past.  Under  such  circumstances,  there  need  be  small  fear  of  her 
secession  from  that  North,  which  has  so  long  stood  between  her  and  ruin. 
The  irritability  of  our  Southern  friends  is  evidence  of  conscious  weakness, 
and  while  that  irritability  shall  continue,  the  danger  of  dissolution  will 
continue  to  be  far  distant. 

The  Union  must  be  continued  until  at  least  the  South  shall  have  had  the 
opportunity  for  taxing  the  North  for  the  accomplishment  of  its  projects. 
Until  then,  the  Union  cannot  be  dissolved.  Such  being  the  case,  the  real 
friend  of  the  Union  is  he  who  opposes  the  annexation  of  Cuba  and  Hayti, 
and  the  extension  of  Slavery ;  and  the  real  disunionist  is  he  who  advo- 
cates compliance  with  Southern  demands.  Thus  far,  all  the  measures 
adopted  for  the  promotion  of  Southern  objects  have  been  follovfred  by  in- 
creased abuse  and  increased  threats  of  separation,  and  such  will  certainly 
be  the  case  with  all  such  future  ones.  To  preserve  the  Union,  it  is  re- 


Appendix. 


quired  that  the  North  should  insist  on  its  rights,  and  determine  to  refuse 
the  admission  of  any  more  such  States  as  Florida  and  Arkansas  as  oiTsets 
against  such  as  Illinois  and  Michigan.  To  preserve  the  Union,  it  is  re- 
quired that  eighteen  millions  of  Northern  men  should  refuse  to  be  ridden 
over  rough-shod  by  two  raillions  of  Southern  men  voting  for  themselves  and 
their  property.  To  preserve  the  Union,  it  is  required  that  we  go  back  to 
that  fundamental  principle  of  our  system  which  says  that  the  majority, 
and  not  the  minority,  shall  rule.  To  preserve  the  Union,  it  is  required 
that  the  freemen  of  the  North  should  insist  on  having  the  government 
administered  in  the  inte  rests  of  freedom,  as  counselled  by  Washington, 
Jefferson,  and  Madison,  refusing  any  longer  to  permit  it  to  be  administered 
in  the  interests  of  the  Calhouns,  the  Butlers,  and  the  Toombses,  who  would 
perpetuate  the  system  under  which  men,  their  wives,  and  their  children 
are  hunted  by  bloodhounds  and  sold  like  cattle  in  the  market.  The  more 
fixed  and  united  the  Northern  people  show  themselves  to  be  —  the  more 
strenuously  they  resist  the  addition  of  any  more  Slave  territory  or  the  ad- 
mission of  any  new  Slave  States  —  the  longer  and  the  more  certain  will 
be  the  endurance  of  the  Union.  The  only  real  ^sunionists  of  the  country, 
north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  are  the  political  doughfaces,  like  Pierce, 
Douglas,  and  Kichardson,  and  the  commercial  doughfaces,  like  many  we 
could  name,  who  sell  themselves  to  the  South  for  the  promotion  of  those 
objects  on  which  Southern  madmen  now  are  bent.